Photography   Growing up, I had always been surrounded by photography, as my father was a total camera nut.  He had to have the most expensive, technologically superior camera available, complete with a vast array of lenses and filters.  When I was very young, I remember being annoyed by his wanting for everyone in the family to pose in front of this monument, or that landmark, for what seemed like the 50th picture that hour.  At the time, I thought that photographs were meant to record family vacations, and that was pretty much it.    When I was about nine or so, I was given my first camera, a well-worn Kodak that must have been at least 20 years old, and was partially held together with tape.  Now that I had my own camera, taking pictures got a whole lot cooler.  It got better still when I was 13 and was given a Pentax IQ-Zoom (very nifty because it could print the date ON the picture).  So yeah,  photography was pretty well valued in the house.      In December of 2003, I was in San Francisco visiting a friend from college and her husband when we went on a three-day trip from San Francisco to Yosemite to Morro Bay on the coast, and back up to the Bay Area.  I remember lying on the bed in my hotel room in Fresno, spending hours staring in amazement at the pictures I had taken that snowy day in Yosemite, all the while thinking, "I can't believe I took these."  After an hour or so of looking at those pictures and thinking to myself, I am the best photographer in the world, I eventually came to view photography as an art form; and all of a sudden I knew this would be a major part of my life from now on.       In May of 2004, I bought the best camera, lens, and biggest memory cards that I could afford and have kept myself busy taking as many pictures as I can.  I love finding and capturing the undiscovered beauty found in everyday common things and scenes.   Due to the increasing demand of my pictures from people who saw them, my fiancée, Kari, and I created ChapinNixon, our photography-based business.  While the web site is still in development, we are taking orders for prints.  You can find some of my pictures in their temporary holding pen at my Flickr account.