I'm Danny Gale, currently in my third year of the electrical and computer engineering program at the University of Colorado. Boulder is a great town in a beautiful place. Right on the front range, access to the mountains is easy. Not to mention that they're always in view to remind you. Outside of my engineering studies, I'm fascinated by psychology and cognitive science. Aside from academics, I love to snowboard, hike, camp, scuba dive and, clearly, take pictures.
 
Boulder's not a little town but certainly not a big city. About 300,000 people (less during the summer), it's much smaller than Fairfax, VA where I grew up. It's a pretty quiet place. Many people are students and everybody's friendly. It's an extraordinarily young, active, liberal and athletic place. And I love living here.
 
Photography has been a passion of mine since my family travelled to Alaska four years ago. I had a small point-and-shoot digital that I was really disappointed with. That trip really lit the photography fire in me. Being in such a beautiful place, I wanted to capture it as I saw it. Not only to stir my own memory, but to relate the experience to others and keep a record of what was. Since then, I've invested in some more serious photographic equipment. Not professional by any means, my current weapon is the Nikon D50 with a small arsenal of lenses: 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 Tamron fisheye, 12-24mm f/4 Tamron, 35-80mm f/4-5.6 Nikon kit lens, and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6. The only formal training I've had was a year-long digital photography studio class in high school.
 
My camera goes with me all over the world. If I travel, it comes with me. I've taken it into the Rocky Mountains on multiple occasions, to the British Virgin Islands, rafting in the Grand Canyon, to Mesa Verde, New Mexico, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico. As I said, I like documenting what I do. Combine that with my other hobbies, and you have a recipe for great photography.
 
I've been scuba diving since the summer of 2004. I went on a cruise with a friend's family, took one dive, and was hooked. I immediately got certified. Since then, I've made my way up through advanced open water and rescue diver to divemaster. The next step is instructor. I've been priveliged enough to dive in Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, Key Largo, and the Bahamas. Underwater photography is expensive so I haven't had much opportunity to do it.
 
Living in Boulder, some of the best skiing in the country is only two or three hours away by car. Places like Vail, Copper, Winter Park, and Beaver Creek are all accessible. I've been snowboarding for about as long as I've been scuba diving, though I'm not nearly as accomplished at boarding as I am at diving.
 
Hiking and camping is easy locationwise here. Finding time for it in an engineering schedule, on the other hand, not so much. Every once in a while I'll have a weekend where I can take most of a day and a night and go. Even this summer, I'm in school for two hours five days a week. Regardless, it's available and I capitalize on it when I can. The flatirons make for a great day hike.
 
On an academic note, my main focus is engineering. I've developed a taste for cognitive science, however, and am pursuing a certificate in cogsci. The way the brain works--the phenomenon that is consciousness emerges from almost half a trillion simple input-output devices working together--fascinates me. What set me off on this track was a great book called "A Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor. My lofty and long-term academic goal is to combine principles of electrical and computer engineering, computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience and psychology to form a new, well defined branch of science or engineering: cognition. Making things that think. These things, however, are difficult to photograph.
 
Enjoy,
Danny Gale