I've been taking pictures all my life, but only seriously since I joined the New York Institute of Photography's home study course some time ago. It's a great course and I've improved greatly since starting it. Haven't finished it yet, but hope to do so this year.
My goal is not to become the next Ansel Adams, but to make a few extra dollars on the side doing what I enjoy--which is taking pictures. Right now, I'm still in the experimental stage. In other words, I'm trying out different fields to see which I'm the best at. Thus far, my figure work on my figure site is better than anything else.
I'm not into digital photography yet, but I do believe that it may one day replace film photography when the prices come down for regular everyday consumers to afford the equipment. Arguments always rage on the photo newsgroups in Usenet, and I never get involved in THAT argument. The bottom line as I see it is this: There will  never be enough pro shooters to drop prices down to acceptable "consumer" levels. Until this new digital technology is brought to the masses, there will always be film cameras available--regardless of the advances that digital has over film.
All the photos on my website were shot with a Nikon N70 and combination of either a 35-80mm AF D zoom lens and a 75-300mm zoom lens. Fill flash is done with the SB 28 for those times when I shoot models outdoors.
I also have recently invested in some new photographic equipment. For scanning, I now have the Minolta DiMage Scan Elite, a Photogenic 1000ws monolight, Illuminata octabank which I haven't had a chance to work with as yet, and two or three other weaker strobes that I use for fill.
I have a full time job working as a computer coordinator (computer hardware support) for the NYC Board of Education.
I just recently moved back to my old neighborhood of Crown Heights Brooklyn. I was able to get a good break on the rent in my mother's building and the apartment still has plenty of room for my studio so I said "why not". The area is not as good as Norwood in the Bronx, but it saves money and time for commuting to my day job.
I also shoot in the vacant apartment upstairs from me. While it is not livable at this point, there is more room due to lack of furniture (and it's a bigger place than mine), and many of the available light nudes on my figure site were shot up there in that place. One bad thing about shooting up there is that I'm not allowed to use the electricity, so I run a 100 foot electrical cord up the stairs and use my monolight's modeling light as working light. It's not bad considering this model has a 250 watt modeling light.

www.paulwardphoto.net