That's me....

A Little about Myself.....

Written by: Siegfried Seierlein
Last Updated: 14th January 2009


	In June 2006 my family and I were in a tragic motorcar accident and in this accident I lost my left arm. Many things go through your mind at that stage plus the months to follow and one of the things I was worried about was to loose my job. It then so happened that I started this site and I was hoping to grow it into something that can generate an income if need be. As time went by I recovered to the point that I could nearly work full time again. I started working more and more and the time I had available to manage the site reduced and during last year a few times I was at the point of closing down the site.




				I think the question is, what is the value of this site and to whom can it be of value. Yes we made good friends and I know some of the guys visiting the site and forum on a regular basis became really good friends and that is great. If I could express a dream then it will be to develop this site into a value for its readers, something that we can continue to develop with what we have and something that is different to the typical forum or public chatting spaces available on the web. I have a few thoughts about that and will discuss it with you in the next paragraphs.

Has it happened to you that somebody, your daughter, friends boy or a work colleague asked you to take pictures for them? They know you have camera equipment and somebody said you take good pictures and the one thing follow to the next and before you know you getting ready for a “photo shoot”.

I normally grab a few magazines I keep on standby and look at the advice they give or I search a few photo sites for answers and with a few ideas in my head I am ready for action. I was thinking to develop this site as a sort of reference for somebody looking for ideas when taking pictures.

To give you a great example. When you hear photo shoot you immediately connect that with a expensive studio, lights, equipment and lovely family type pictures as a result. In contrary my son did a wedding on the 31st December and as part of the formal photo shoot he had the wedding couple in-front of a old factory building. The pictures made in that “studio” is just awesome. That is a great example to discuss here and it can help many others looking for ideas.

Another great site I know is the valuable resource Gordon Buck has build for the G series Canon cameras. Should one take the E520 and build a similar reference Gordon did? There are so many ideas one can think about. I am happy to say the E520 idea will not really work well, what about the Nikon guys or the Canon or what about my Panasonic?

I think we will always discuss the camera or accessories or options. Some say stop talking camera and take more pictures.

Personally I enjoy the equipment as much as taking pictures and I enjoy talking about it.

I am very curious to hear what Steve say about the new E30, hope you enjoy your new camera Steve.

Last year we tried to do a calendar project on the site. There has been interest from members and readers but to be honest I was not that fired up with the response I received. I understand that its not something that happens overnight. I would like to continue inviting folks to take part in activities we organize because its one of the best ways to improve your skills. You know...people pay hundreds of dollars to go to fancy schools and special training courses with well known photographers. On this site you have one of the best possible opportunities to learn from well experienced and talented folks. I think important to notice is that we have people here that enjoy to give, Pius give a lot of his time for free, so does Simon, Herman, Rob and others. I something think, what a shame it will be if we loose these guys to somewhere else cause nobody ever posted a question or picture or what ever on the forum...

Guys the site will continue and it will basically stay in the format it is today. I will develop an area that will discuss different disciplines like portrait photography, nature, children, wild life or landscapes. It will not only be articles but pages that will continually be upgraded until they became the best references on the web.

We will also have groups, like a E520 group or a Panasonic L10 group or a Canon 1000D group and more.

I hope this made the future of the site a little more clear to you. I want to finish this page with a short personal testimony and I hope it is of value to you.

As I said in 2006 my family and I were in a tragic motorcar accident. We were traveling on the “autobahn” my wife, my daughter and me, I was at the steering and I had a 2 second black out. It was enough to get the car of the road and all I remember is my wife screaming next to me, I woke up and saw the bridge in front of the car.

The next moment I again woke up, hanging up side down in the driver seat and my wife screaming at me from the outside, saying...”get out the car is burning” I unclipped the seat belt and fell onto the inside of the roof as the car was upside down. I noticed my arm was off and said to my wife...”but my arm” and she replied ...”GET OUT”

At that moment somebody behind me pressed really hard onto my shoulder and I could not see the person and I just said...”please not so hard it hurts” The person replied in perfect German to me saying...”Sir if I do not you will be bleeding to death in the next 2 - 3 minutes. To give you a picture, the car, my daughter, my wife was just blood....that’s how strong it was pumping.

See what happened is that this paramedic was on his way home from duty when he saw the accident happen from the other side of the Autobahn. He stopped, run over the autobahn and came to help me.

My Lord Jesus looked down at his friend driving with his family, he saw the accident happen and he send a Angel to come and help me. Till today we do not know the name of this person, no one saw his face....you know it could have been my Lord Jesus Himself, because He lives and because He cares for all who believe in His name, Praise His wonderful Name...Thank You Lord.