Thanks for taking the time to visit Shawn Grant 's World. I started photography in April of 2000, prior to that I have never touched a camera in my life. I wanted an outlet for my artistic side since I couldn't draw photography seemed like the perfect outlet. I also enjoy nature and marvel at the grand scenery this Earth has to offer. So nature photography was the way to go. 
I am privileged to live in East Tennessee which has some the best scenery in the nation. I am within an hour from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park , hour and a half from Big South Fork, hour and a half from Cherokee National Forest and many other places. This region offers a wide variety to photograph from grand mountain scenes, waterfalls, mountain streams and a huge assortment of wild flowers. It is a great place to learn photography.
So you want to know what equipment I use. I use a Pentax K10D digital SLR. The lenses are Pentax 28-105, 80-320 and 16-45. For macro I use Nikon 5T and 6T diopters. The computer I use for processing my photos and the design of this website is custom built by me. It's processor is Intel Quad Core 6600, 4 gigs of ram, Nvidia 9400GT 1gig ram graphics card, 1 Terabyte hard drive. The display a Samsung 22 inch widescreen. The software I use is PhotoShop for raw and photo retouching and Lightroom 2 for cataloging and archiving.
I also have other hobbies besides photography. One is amateur astronomy. Unlike nature photography this isn't a great area for astronomy but I make do and still love it. I specifically like visual observation of galaxies, nebula and star clusters. I currently belong to the Knoxville Observers and do their web site and public outreach.
I enjoy computers specifically building and repairing them. Yes you can build your own computer and it is great fun and cheaper. It is great having the knowledge to solve computer problems without worrying about paying and waiting on computer technicians.