Howdy Steemit! Meandering through cryptoland led me here!

Howdy folks! Since it appears to be the custom hereabouts I thought I'd take a moment and introduce myself. My name's Jesse Hollon, I'm from the land of bourbon and bluegrass, better known as the state of Kentucky (USA). Among other things I'm an Appalachian-American (formerly known as a hillbilly), a freelance photographer, an outdoorsman, an avid reader, history buff extraordinaire, news junkie, and a traveler afflicted with a serious case of wanderlust.

My arrival here on Steemit came about due to my wandering down the crypto rabbit hole. While I've long been aware of and paid some attention to bitcoin, it wasn't until last year that I really started to develop an interest in crypto. As I meandered through the land of cryptocurrencies I saw more and more that piqued my curiosity. Eventually I came across Steem (not sure where, probably Binance) and the more I learned, the more I wanted to participate. After some delays and difficulties creating an account, here I am! Now that you know how I got here, some more detail on me and my interests will help to explain why I'm here and what content I intend to contribute.

Photography has long been an interest of mine. I started taking photos when I was 6 or 7, using a little 110 camera to capture whatever caught my eye (some of my photos from then are a bit random and inexplicable). From there I progressed to a 35mm and then made the jump to the world of digital photography. A few years ago I acquired my first DSLR camera, which helped to transform my lifelong interest in photography into a career. Since then my camera and I have wandered widely in search of things to shoot. Having grown up in the Appalachian Mountains, nature and the outdoors have always been a major part of my life, and my photography often reflects this. While primarily a nature and landscape photographer, I don't confine myself to that and often dabble in other areas such as street photography, photojournalism, stock photography, and more.

I have an enduring fondness for travel and often combine this with my photography, going on "photo adventures", meandering about with my camera in search of new and interesting experiences. My most recent adventure was a 12 week, 10,000 mile jaunt across the western United States. For this adventure I created a website and blog to document and share my experiences and the positive feedback I received from that is part of the reason I joined Steemit. While I won't deny that the possibility of making money on here appeals to me, the opportunity to reach a new, different, and wider audience and interact with a wide variety of people is the primary reason why I joined Steemit. Much of the content that I post on here will be photography related, although by no means all.

Me (sans beard) on the summit of Mount Sanitas on my most recent adventure

I'm an avid reader and a long time student of history, going back to my discovery as a child of the history section of the public library. Growing up I read as many history books as I could and often competed in (and won) history competitions. I continued this in college, studying history and political science. I have a tendency to give family, friends, and even total strangers impromptu history lessons and I'm curious to see how those go over on here. Since today's news is tomorrow's history, I'm also a bit of a news and politics junkie, and try to keep an eye on the goings on around the world.

One of the things that is definitely not an interest of mine is writing about myself, so it is time to bring this post to a conclusion. Expect to see purdy pictures, impromptu history lessons, and off-kilter political commentary. If y'all got any questions or comments, just send'em my way!

Now for some random photos of mine!