Hi thought I'd drop in ...

[Watchin]

Hi Guys,
I've been gone for a while, didn't realize how long it's been. I thought it was time to refresh some old friendships and bring you up to date (as if you cared ) So regard this as the letter in the xmas card...

I've been off on an IT contract for a while, which is why I dropped out of sight, working 60 - 80 hours a week kind of kept the photography to a minimum. Well that's over now, I got resessioned. As of next Jan I'm officially a "retired person", so I'm looking forward to spending more time with the camera again. Until then I guess I'm back in the gainfully underemployed group again.

We bought a snow-bird landing spot in north central Florida this spring. I'm look forward to a new shooting range come winter (can't leave til after Christmas or the grankids would hang me). If anyone is interested I can give a run down on what's up down there, real estate wise. Basically, we've been putting money aside for a retirement place for years and with the prices the way they are now; well .. we couldn't pass it up. If you have ever thought about it... stop thinking go looking... It's that much of a buyers market.

I've recharged and cleaned all the camera gear so I'm hoping to have some good shots for this fall and winter. Oh yeah, I upgraded to the D700, so the Nikon gear is still in the house; it's amazing what you can talk the wife into when you're making money

I've decided to get out of the studio stuff altogether, so the Alien-Bees, umbrellas, softboxes, brollybox, light stands, background stands, and that stuff will be going up for sale sometime this fall. Let me know if anyone is interested.

I missed this motley crew... drop me a line, I'll be back in the forums (be warned)
I've got to at least come by and ohhh/awwh at the posted work.

[TonyK]

Good to see a friendly face. Wondering what happened to you.

Retirement? I did not think you were that old. Congratulations and enjoy.

[JB]

D700? Nice! Welcome back to the forum, Greg. I've been wondering what you've been up to as well.

[Watchin]

Thanks for the welcome!

Hi Tony! Yeah I hit 62 next Jan, so I'll file for SS, doing the snow bird thing makes it hard to get a full time job normally and today it's like "fogettaboutit". So I'll work 6 months up here part-time and 6 months in the sun part-time while doing my own thing in between. I've turned into a gipsy photographer I guess

JB - D700 is sweet! Started with the Fuji S2. That was good for it's time and the kind of work I was doing. Then switched to D200 cause I thought it was going to be just personal stuff, not so good a move. Now I'm back with the D700 and happy as a clam. Well almost, I still lust after equipment but isn't that part of the gendre?

What you guys up to these days?

[mattchase]

Hey!

I never would have thought you were so old either! ;)

Congrats on the new camera, I haven't done much photography lately but am still using my good ol' 5D.

[JoePhoto]

Sweet - nice to see you back around. I did the Nikon to Canon to Nikon flip flop recently. As of around this time last year, I came back to Nikon with a few D700's and have never been happier. I can't wait for the D700S, because I'm currently lusting after the D3S but can't afford one let alone two for my needs!

I look forward to seeing some images from you. In honor of you're return, I'll web-a-size a few recent photos and post them in PhotoX so you guys can make fun of me like old times. I need to get about posting some photos anyway.