Welcome to My Photo Blog

Who I Am, and What You'll Find Here

I'm B. N. Sullivan -- also known as Bobbie.  I like to take pictures, and I enjoy sharing them.   All of the photos on this blog are my own work.

I'm what the photography magazines call a 'serious amateur' photographer.  I don't make my living as a photographer, but I do take my photography seriously.  My favorite subjects to photograph are things in nature - flowers, animals, birds, insects, and natural landscapes.  I also love travel photography.  These are the subjects of the photos displayed in this blog.

You will see a preponderance of images from Hawaii on this blog, because that is where I live.   My home is on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii, and my back garden has a view to the Pacific Ocean.  Both the garden and that ocean view are among my favorite photo subjects.

The garden is extensive, thanks to my husband's efforts, and many of the flower photos on this blog were shot right here at home.  The overseer of the garden is our cat, Buster.  Images of Buster will appear here regularly as well.

2011 Update: We now have a house in Colorado, too, so expect to see more photos from the mainland US, especially the Rocky Mountain area.

Some Background and Photography Geek Stuff

I came to serious photography rather late, and in a peculiar way.  Until the late 1980s, I had never taken any photos except the usual family stuff -- holidays, birthday parties, trips -- and always with a point-and-shoot camera.  Then, I decided I'd like to try underwater photography.   I had been a diver for years, so this seemed like a logical thing to do.

I bought a proper submersible camera, a Nikonos V, and began learning how to use it.   Over time, I became fairly accomplished at underwater photography.  My underwater photos are displayed in my other blog, The Right Blue.

On land, I continued to use a point-and-shoot camera exclusively until about 10 years ago when I got my first SLR camera -- a Nikon N90s.  At first I had a bit of trouble adapting what I had learned about taking photographs underwater to shooting on dry land, but little by little the quality of my images improved.  There are some images I took on film with the N90s on this blog.  Originally captured as transparencies, those images have been digitized using a Nikon Super COOLSCAN 5000 ED scanner.

Currently I am using a Nikon D40x (10.2-MP) camera body, with assorted Nikon lenses. [2010 Update: I now own a Nikon D5000 (12.3-MP) as well.]   I still use a point-and-shoot camera, too.   (Yes, really!)  The one I use -- a Kodak DX4530 Zoom (5-MP) -- is not new, but it never ceases to amaze me with the quality of the images it can produce at times.  Most of the images on this blog have been captured with one or the other of these digital cameras.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy my photos.