Mountains Of My Desire

My name is Dan Fink and I currently reside in Colorado. I was born in Michigan and have also lived in Pennsylvania, Kansas and Missouri. I spent most of my formative years in Manhattan, Kansas..The Little Apple, graduating from Manhattan High School in 1982. After spending several unproductive years at various universities, I finally graduated from Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas, in 1991 with a degree in Computer Information Systems.

As I spent so much time in Manhattan, I am a true-purple fan of Kansas State University. I can remember football games where the players outnumbered the fans and students waiting for a week outside to get tickets to basketball games. Things have changed, but I still cheer long and loud when I hear The Wabash Cannonball. Several years ago, I paid over $100 each for $20 student tickets to watch the Cats beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers for the first time in 30 years and they were worth EVERY PENNY!

In 1993, I moved to Colorado after spending so much time coming out on vacation. It was one of those life changing moments that lasted forever. I actually made the decision in the fall of 1992, but ended up staying with my current employer for almost 4 months while we found my replacements (note the plural) and worked on resolved a couple of problematic software bugs. On New Years Day 1993, I packed up the truck, loaded MC, my pet pig, into the front with me and took off for Colorado.

After several years as a Cobol programmer, I decided to make a transition to Oracle. In fact, it was one of many transitions that I was 'enduring'. At the same time, I was ending my engagement and buying a house. I also acquired another pet pig, Aggie. She was abandoned at a Pig Sanctuary.

In the past 8 years, I have worked hard at becoming a good Oracle Database Administrator. For a different perspective on what I do, I maintain another website with my technical writings and information.

The picture above is from a short trip with friends who were through hiking the Colorado Trail. They spent over 6 weeks on the trail and I was with them for 3 days. The mountain in the background is San Luis Peak a 14er (over 14,000 feet) in southwest Colorado. About this time, we were dealing with a map misreading and trying to figure out where we actually were. Fortunately, we figured out the problem, met our ride and made it to the hotel for a shower, dinner and night's sleep NOT under the stars. Since this picture was taken, I have shaved the facial hair and chopped the ponytail (hard to see from the pic).

My first camera, back in high school, was a manual everything Pentax K1000. When my father and I went to Haiti in 1979, this is the camera the I took with me. I still hear very good things from people about this camera as a great learning tool.

Before I left for my post-graduation trip to the Grand Tetons, I purchased a used Canon AE-1 from a pawnshop for $250. Hard to believe, but 10 years later, the body of an AE-1 is selling for almost $300 (without a lens). When I started, I only had one lens, the standard 50mm. As time went on, I purchased a zoom lens to use. I used this camera to take the photo that demonstrated that I had a raw ability. I have not posted it yet, but I will soon.

In 1998, I purchased a new camera, a Canon EOS Elan IIe. It had all the bells and whistles! Autoexposure, autofocus, autowind... It really enabled me to

In late 1999, I purchased a Mamiya RZ67 medium format camera. I have since sold this camera as it was too bulky for trekking and outdoor activities.