I might as well be first cab off the rank!

Hello world,
My name is Mark Johnson and I'll be your host whenever you call by and visit the Light Art forum.
I am a 1958 model male of the species and live on the Central Coast of New South Wales Australia with my partner in life and business and three beautiful daughters. I have been into photography since about 1989 when I bought my first serious camera, a Canon EOS 630 which I subesequently took on a trip to Canada, where I became hooked. SOooo hooked, did two really stupid things (three actually, but one of them is a secret). I will digress to relate the tale because looking back, my stupidity defies belief, but is ample demonstration of my love capturing an image. It is a true story.
Stupid thing number 1: I was driving through the Canadian Rockies in a state of reverie (as you do) with my then girlfriend (a Canadian) and rounded a corner to see a huge grizzly bear on the side of the road, at this point minding its own business. This was the first time either of us had encountered a grizzly bear in the wild - in fact we had on just passed a black bear a little earlier - but he was a little fella. Grizzlies are a VERY large meat eating animal. Before my common sense nueron kicked in, I pulled the car over to the side of the road, reached into the back seat, grabbed my camera and got out of the car. Clearly the little silent voice in my head should have yelled louder, because realising I only had a 35 -105 zoom fitted, I crossed the road to better frame my quarry. (idiot I here all the Canadians in the audience say). I then calmly shot off two or three frames. The sound of the motor-drive caused the bear to look up and stare blankly at me down the barrel of the lens. At the same time, I heard the shrill hissing voice of my girlfriend from the (comparative) safety of our small rental vehicle, tellng me to get back in the car. At this point, I realised I was maybe 8 metres away from someting that can run faster than a horse and may, or may not have eaten in the last day or so. Common sense finally kicked in and I beat a hasty retreat to the car.
Stupid thing number 2: About an hour after stupid thing number 1, we passed a female moose and her calf, this time on our side of the road. Yep, you guessed - self preservation again passed me by. Meece or Moose or Moose (whatever the plural is) kill more people than grizzlies (I didn't know that then). The moose and her calf wandered off into the forest to escape this fool. But no, with the stealth of a trained assassin, I pursued them to get the shot. This time I actually captured some fine images. But what was I thinking? Hooked as I said.
So why have I created the Light Art forum, there are other forums out ther already. At this very early point, I do not know, with only a few posts on the board a couple of days in.
I guess I hope others who have experienced the joy of seeing a "keeper" imerge from the chemicals, or raced to the store to pick up prints, or wandered the rainy streets of some far away place with just a camera for company and as content as you could be, torn open a box of slides to get them onto a light box, or felt like a child at christmas when you first open the packaging of some new, longed for piece of kit, or just know you've grabbed a killer shot - or these days the much less frustrating process of getting the cards into the reader and watching your work come up on the screen, or as happened just last week completed a portrait "showing" to a young couple with whom we had done a family shot featuring their new born child -returning to the room to find sitting in the glow of the plasma display screen weeping with joy, or just as importantly, being asked by a past customer through tears of grief to document the funeral of her father.
If you have done any of the above and realised (or for that matter are not even sure) why you love this form of art and self expression, then you belong here.
Today, my wife and I are fortunate enough to derive part of our income through creating portrait images of families and kids.
We specialise in available light 'lifestyle' imagery and love it. We also love photography for its own sake. Our young daughters (12,10,5) were out on our deck just a couple of days back, shooting portraits of each other.
It might take a while to fill this forum with the words, questions and answers, concepts and discussion, that I hope will come. Whether you are a beginner, a seasoned pro, a collector, or a point and shooter, please stay a while and say hi.