Mastering the Nikon D700 (The Mastering Camera Guide Series)

Darrell Young (DigitalDarrell) is an information technology engineer by trade. He's been an avid photographer since 1968 when his mother gave him a Brownie Hawkeye camera.

Darrell has used Nikon cameras and Nikkor lenses since 1980. He has an incurable case of Nikon Acquisition Syndrom (NAS) and delights in working with Nikon's newest digital cameras.

Living near Great Smoky Mountains National Park has given him a real concern for, and interest in, nature photography.

He loves to write, as you can see in the Resources area of the Nikonians.org community. He joined the community in 2000 and his literary contributions led to an invitation to become a Founding Member of the Nikonians Writers Guild.

When James (Jim) Johnson retired from a 25-year career as a software developer for IBM, he had already been working as a contract technical editor for Microsoft. After his retirement, technical editing and writing became his primary source of income to cover the cost of his “toys”—most of which were computer and photographic equipment.

Jim’s involvement with cameras began in the mid ‘50s when he needed to record the interior of caves in Kentucky. At the time, the greatest challenge was to provide adequate illumination, so he purchased a Leica 3F camera (which was the norm at that time) and experimented with numerous lighting sources. He was later able to add a nice piece of brass-and-glass that had been manufactured by Canon during the post-war occupation. That 100mm telephoto was every bit as sharp and capable as the Leica lenses. Such began Jim’s appreciation for Japanese camera equipment. The ensuing years have seen numerous Nikon SLRs and DSLRs, Canon DSLRs, and now Olympus MILCs go through his hands, satisfying his on-going interest in the evolution of the technology and providing source material for several books, including this one.

Jim and his wife Heather live in Los Osos, CA, on the coast in a home that overlooks the Morro Bay estuary. The coast, bays, and mountains combine to host a vast array of botanical subjects, which are the focus of Jim’s current photographic interest.