Joe from Alabama's photostream  

A life-long resident of Alabama, I grew up in the rural Black Belt before moving to Birmingham (Alabama's largest city) to attend college at Birmingham-Southern College. After college, I moved to Auburn, Alabama for graduate school at Auburn University, but moved back to Birmingham after a year to be with my future wife. I ended up with a Master's in English, specializing in 20th century American literature, particularly focused on Hemingway.

I never moved back to Marengo County, but love the rural landscape and want to see the Black Belt and all of Alabama improve. As I get older, I find I miss many of the rural qualities found in the Black Belt more and more. I miss the stunning scenery--I had to move away to appreciate the beauty of a green field or the fascinating birds that land around the catfish ponds along the road.

I've worked in several fields, including a reasonable stint in the publishing industry, working for Southern Progress as a food editor and general writer for several magazines including Weight Watchers. I've been a non-profit executive director and I've worked for myself as a designer/ photographer and tourism consultant for the last 9+ years.

I use Canon cameras (my first camera was a Canon AE-1 I got long before I graduated from high school). I currently use a Canon 5D II and 40D (we had an original digital Elph and picked up a 10D when they first came out, so we've been in the digital world for quite a while). I have a reasonable collection of lenses, but, honestly, the lens that stays on my camera the most right now is my 24-105 IS on the 5D. My 17x40 L is like a totally new lens on my 5D--super wide. I do all my photo editing on a Mac using Lightroom 3 and, for more complicated stuff, Photoshop CS5.

I live with my wife Ann, three Burmese cats and one adopted tabby Siamese mix cat in an historic part of Birmingham, Alabama.

I'm still working to visit all 50 states--got a way to go yet!

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