Jeff Kleber, 40, London, Ontario, Canada. I am a Store manager for Mappins Jewelers in London.

No formal training, but I have read lots about it in books magazines and on the internet. My Favorite places to visit to learn about photography are Dpreview.com, Digitalgrin.com and Photosig.com.

Photography has been a passion for since getting a Kodak Dc215 as a anniversary present for my wife and myself in July of 2000.

Panasonic FZ-30, Sunpak 383 flash, Nikon TC-E17 1.7x teleconverter, Nikon 5T and 6T achromatic close up lenses, Oly W-con 08 wide angle adaptor and a ring flash. An new Oly E-510 and E-3 with oly 14-54, a 50-200 and a 70-300 I like the 4/3rds format for the extra zoom reach and built-in IS for wildlife and birds plus it will help with portraits. I’ll keep the FZ-30 for macro.

My favorite subjects right now are mainly close up butterfly and exotic reptiles and far away Southwestern Ontario birds with cardinals being my favorite bird to photograph.

Really any good nature and wildlife photographer inspires me. I see what I like and try to incorporate some of that into my style of shooting. One can always learn by looking at others work. I am also trying to expand my horizons and would like to get into more portraiture so I scour places like Photosig for what catches my eye... subject lighting, poses, framing, backgrounds etc.

I have been with Smugmug over three years, and what I like best is the fact that it is so customizable and user friendly. The support is second to none.

Smugmug has been a great friend and partner, it has let me reach out to people that would have never seen my work otherwise and has gotten me some nice recognition in the past few years.

The background of your picture is as important as your main subject. A great subject with a poor background will never be a great picture.