About Me

My name is John Heltsley, and I’m a 31 year-old IT support specialist in San Diego, CA. I was raised in northern Virginia, and moved to San Diego in 1999. I graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in History and minoring in Political Science. I’d love to teach someday, but haven’t been able to make that a reality yet.

Aside from photography, here are some of my other interests:

• Music: My music playlist is pretty diverse and ever-growing, ranging from classical to rock and punk to jazz. Wherever I am, you can be pretty sure I’ve got some music playing.
• Cooking: Cooking runs in my family, and was a skill taught to me primarily by my father. I love to experiment in the kitchen, and have turned out some pretty good meals for friends and family.
• Movies: I love to watch movies, and have favorites in almost every genre. Some of my all-time favorite movies include the Indiana Jones films, the original Star Wars trilogy, the Godfather, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the Thing.
• Books: For books, I read some historical non-fiction (I was a history major, after all), and find particular interest in ancient civilizations, especially Greek and Roman; the rest of my reading is typically in fiction (e.g. Clive Cussler, Matt Reilly, Stephen Hunter), fantasy (e.g. Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks) and science-fiction (e.g. Robert Heinlein, William Gibson).
• Wine: I also have a small wine collection, which I’m trying to grow, and I love to go wine tasting.
• Webcomics: I am also addicted to some excellent webcomics. Questionable Content, the Order of the Stick, XKCD and Penny Arcade are four of the best that I read, and I would strongly recommend them.
• SCUBA: I’ve not actually started diving lessons yet, but my friend Jeff is pushing hard to get me to do it this year. Apparently, I’ve said I’d start for about 3 years now and keep putting it off.

You can contact me by leaving comments on the site or send me an e-mail.

Photography

My current photo camera is a Nikon D80. I own an 18-200 VR2 and a 50mm lens and a SB-600 flash. I hope to add a few more lenses to my arsenal, money permitting.

Some of my earlier DSLR photos were taken on a Nikon D50 with a 24-85mm lens. I have also owned two Canon PowerShot ELPH cameras and an original Nikon F-body, that my father gave me.

I try to get out as much as possible to take photographs, and often travel in the company of two friends, Jeff and Stacey. I hope to travel more in the coming years, including overseas.

About the Domain

The name for the domain, Terribly Creative, came as a suggestion from one of my best friends. I was struggling to come up with a new domain name that fit me and my idea for this site. While chatting with Eric, he remarked how I was pretty creative and should not have a problem finding one. I told him I was very creative at times, and not at others. He joked that I was “terribly creative”, as terribly means both to a great extent and in a terrible manner. The comment was perfectly fitting and hilarious, and I reserved the domain name within the hour. Thanks, Eric!

My logo came to me from a few sources in my life. The logo itself is comprised of a yellow trident over a blue aperture ring, representing two of my favorite things: being in and around the water, and photography. The trident also represents a few other aspects of my life: the coat of arms of Ukraine, from which my mother and her family came from. I also attended UCSD whose mascot is Triton, and the school logo is Triton carrying a trident. The blue and gold colors come from my Ukrainian heritage, being the colors of the coat of arms and the flag. They are also the school colors for UCSD. I came up with the base idea for the logo, and a very good friend created it and also designed my website. Thanks, Dave!