Reading about all your stories is quite fascinating. Here is my story, true story!

I never really saw myself as an artist yet I loved music and visual arts for as long as I can possibly remember, which certainly have something to do with the fact that my school (primary school, as a kid) had an extented art vocation. Back in the very early 90's, my parents got me a small Canon P&S, pretty much the simpliest 35mm camera one may think of. I used it from time to time during the following decade with no particular interest.
Things started to take place in early april 2001. I was on a ski journey in Killington with a good friend of mine. I had my little Canon with me while my friend borrowed is parents APS. We skied hard, had a good time and shoot the great scenery of Vermont randomly, none of us being photographers. Few days later, came the point where we actually exchanged our pictures. His where significantly brighter, sharper, colourful and contrasty than mine. The optics of the APS exceeding by far the capabilities of my P&S. I then thought that I needed such a camera but I was still studying full time and I couldn't really afford it.
A year passed and I visited camera stores from times to times just for fun. I noticed that there was a kind of cameras called SLR's (lol) and I thought that I could probably make a good use of it. Summer 2002 came, I graduated and received a Nikon N65 as a gift. (I remember how it appeared to be an overly exotic piece of gear at that time...).
I started to shoot as a simple hobby but soon enough the magic happened. I kickly found myself shooting for the sole purpose of crafting images rather than collecting memories. My interest kept growing since then, partly thanks to this great site and the passionate folks here. The fact that I started to do some night shooting one year ago was also quite significant in such a way that it made me realise to which extend I can go further than "reality recording" and create unnexpected moods, thanks to light.
I have now reached a point where I am thinking about eventually taking photography to a professional or semi-professional level. I am arguably not there yet but I have been taking classes on an individual basis from time to time and I consider entering a 2 years program in september 2005.

Seb