I think I got it from my Dad.

For as long as I can remember, cameras have been a huge part of my daily life. Dad was alwaysd the guy taking the pics, but never appearing in any of them. I either purchased or acquired through hand-me-down a nice set of Pentax and Olympus bodies and lenses, and carefully saved my money to pay for all that film, processing and printing.

And then came the digital revolution.

I bought my first digital camera in 1996 (a casio with an astounding 320 X 240 resolution!). I've been shooting like a liberated prisoner since then, savoring the era of inexpensive data storage. Today, I roll with Canon gear.

I recently had a discussion with a colleague about photography. She could not understand why I shoot the things I do. "Some people shoot people," I said. "And I shoot dead things."

Which, of course, is only in jest, although I do find myself shooting a lot of abandoned highways and buildings. But I find those seemingly "dead" things to be alive in a strange kind of way, just as alive as the landscapes in which they are located.

And truth be known, I do shoot some people, and a lot of nature scenes. I am not the coroner of America past.

Enjoy a few pics below, and note that my colleague and I hope to lead some photo destination adventures in the near future. Dead and alive.

• Scenes from my Utah adventure August 2013 (3 national parks and 1 national monument in 1 day!)