Hello from the Midwest

[CHanly83]

I am not the greatest at talking about myself, but I will give it a shot.

 

Originally from Central CA, I relocated to Wisconsin.  Presently, I travel around the midwest for my job, which is inspection for natural gas companies.  Unfortunately, I often find myself in work boots and a hard hat than in a dry suit and fins.  But when the time allows, I enjoy throwing on the long johns and frequenting the local quarries and Great Lakes during my work season.  When I have a few months off, my wife and I spend most of our time in Florida and put a few stamps in the ole passport.  We usually try to experience new countries in the Caribbean, but we often find ourselves in the Yucatan. Wet rocks seem to not move as much for a photo.

I was never really into photography, but it's easier to show family members photos of the pretty fish than it is to describe them.  So, I got started on this crazy and rather expensive hobby with a Canon TG-5 for snorkeling.  This blossomed into wanting to spend more time underwater, so along came an Open Water SDI cert, and low and behold, the instructor also sold SeaLife cameras.  That started the itch but never pushed me further for a year or two.  We ended up going on a work trip for my wife to the Yucutan, and the weather was shit, so the ports were closed.  The guide mentioned the cenotes were still an option.  I was thinking, cool... wet rocks...  Well, those wet rocks ended up being Cenote Angelita, and my mind was BLOWN!!! The photos were absolutely garbage, but I couldn't care less.  A year or two later, I returned to the same area and was introduced to a new guide who asked if she could bring her tall, slightly goofy British boyfriend along, who also likes to take photos, and this is where it hit me.  This little hobby is going to get very expensive.  Well, the long story still pretty long, in a few short years, I went from a snorkel to a few SDI certs, a few TDI certs, an NSS-CDS, and even a GUE cert sprinkled in and a Canon TG-5 to a sealife to a Sony a7iv to now a the a7rv.

 

Well, speaking of hard hats and boots, I just got a knock on the window, and I have to go do some work.  

 

Thanks for having me folks...

[TimG]

Hi CHanly

 

Great to have you with us. We hope you really enjoy Waterpixels. A warm welcome! 

[humu9679]

Hi CHanly,

 

Yup, that's how it happens. Not a bad addiction unless you can't pay the mortgage. Bienvenidos!

[CHanly83]

@TimG thank you for taking the time to send me a welcome.  

 

@humu9679 the bills are definitely covered, the main problem is finding the time to actually enjoy the darn hobby!