I am a 37 years old IT professional suburbanite born in Denmark where I still live. From my early childhood I have had a deep fascination with the wonders of the natural world - not least of all reptiles and amphibians.
Spending the better part of my formative years in a herp depleted part of a "herpetofaunistically challenged" country my field interests soon turned elsewhere, though - to birds, mammals, fishing, orchids, fungi, etc.
Then, some 7 or 8 years ago I suddenly began seeing greater variety and numbers of ampihibians and - especially - reptiles locally than I had been used to, mostly as a result of moving to another part of the country. I realised it was possible to find a somewhat decent assortment of herps on a regular basis with a reasonable effort almost in my back yard and rediscovered the fascination I had known from casual holiday finds and a couple of years living in the US as a child. My subsequent discovery of a plethora of fora and other fieldherping resources on the internet only fueled my interest and the rest as they say is history.
Over the past half decade fieldherping has been my main "hobby" though time rarely permits more than short local outings and a few hours of nosing around abroad in suboptimal conditions come family vacation time.
Unlike many with this interest I have never really been a keeper. As a kid every now and then I would bring home the odd turtle for a few days before releasing it or try to raise some tadpoles (they inevitably died before metamorphosis), but that's about it really.
I am not much of a photographer either as I tend to view photography as a distraction from observation and the field "experience". Lately I have begun to take my camera along more though and I am getting increasingly focused on at least occasionally getting semidecent shots of the critters - mainly because I have found good quality photos to be an important part of the communication with the online communities with whom I like to share my interest.
Anyway, enough talk - here's a couple of photos of me with my main herping partners. I think he's already hooked but I still have some work to do with her - and their mother...
