My name is Afzal Hussain. I am an engineer by profession, currently living and working in Oslo, Norway. I started getting serious about photography because I was frustrated by the varying results I got on the photographs I used to take with my analogue pocket camera. In 2002 I bought a small analogue SLR camera, Minolta Dynax 5, and started teaching myself photography through self-tuition. I went from being mostly focused on acquiring technical skill to learning and being inspired by other photographers' work.

I shot exclusively with film until December 2004, when I bought my first digital camera, the Canon EOS 20D. There were several reasons for my transition from analogue to digital. I was tired of using hour upon hour scanning film with my Nikon filmscanner. I was frustrated by the varying result of the development of film from various labs, and wanted full control of the process from shutter release to the final photo on the screen. Lastly, by then my interest in photography had matured, and I felt I was ready to take the next step.

Today I shoot with Canon EOS 7D, and the interest has grown to passion. I like to shoot all kinds of subjects, but my favourite is people. I love taking portraits. I have discovered that portraits have the ability to make people happy. Observing people and trying to catch their personality in a portrait is challenging and takes a lot of time and effort, but makes it all worthwhile for me as an amateur. I have performed a number of tasks for friends and family, including weddings, parties, celebrations, portraits and concerts.

I force myself to try to limit my attention to equipment, and rather focus on the photographic process. It's beyond any doubt that with the equipment I have today, most of the time I am the limitation and not the equipment. However, it is still impossible to completely resist the materialistic urge, and I guess I give into that urge more often than I would like to admit.

Today I am using the following equipment: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6, Canon EF 35mm 1:2, Canon EF 70-300 4-5.6 IS USM, Sigma 105mm 1:2.8 DG EX Macro