I'm in the photo, but I'm not playing the accordion.....

My name is Karen Nichols. I live in Sausalito, CA, a picturesque village on the water, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm 45 years old. I was born in Fresno, CA, raised in Porterville, CA, and moved to the SF Bay Area to attend college. I've been here ever since.

The UZI is my third digital camera. My first two (an Oly D-320L and a Kodak DC-280) were primarily used to take pictures of my cats. With the Kodak, I began to explore panoramic photography which led me to the UZI.

I come at photography from a background as an artist --- the camera is another tool through which I can express my artistic vision. I became more serious about photography when I started to explore the alternative processes of Polaroid Image and Emulsion transfers and sx70 manipulations. I started taking photos as source photos, then found that I really liked the original photos themselves.

I am a rabid evangelist of digital photography. I feel that I've made exponential progress in my photographic skills, largely because I take about 2500 photos per month. I could never afford to buy and process that much film --- and with EXIF info, I don't need to take meticulously illegible notes as I did in my early days as an amateur shutterbug. My second camera is the decidedly retro Holga. For you guys who like to duct tape everything, this might be a fun camera for you as well.

By profession, I am a User Interface Architect. However, with the dot-bomb implosion, that whole industry has evaporated, and the number of jobs in my profession has become nearly non-existent. So, I'm beginning to morph into a professional fine art photographer, a transition that should take a couple of years. In my spare time, I'm co-founder of a spam filter software company. Years ago, I was a stockbroker/bond trader, so I'm no stranger to switching careers.

Hobbies include kayaking, hiking, birding and dressing my cats in costumes. My partner, Jeff, and I are both 3rd-gen native Californians and share a love of the Eastern Sierra and Yosemite --- so we head for the hills as often as possible.

Here's my website: www.karennichols.com and
my pbase galleries

And there's a real photograph of me here.