About Mike...
Born and raised in Florissant, Missouri, a north St. Louis County suburb, I grew up the middle of three sons to David and Carol Jeffries. My brothers and I still talk to this day about how fortunate we to have them as our parents.
Dad was an architect here in St. Louis for William B. Ittner, then Ittner & Bowersox, and finally for PGAV. Mom was a former nurse at St. Lukes thanks to a debilitating rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. She stayed home to raise us and later turned her passion for counted cross stitch into an opportunity, opening her store, An Itch To Stitch, and running it in Florissant for many years.
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Though they made very little, we never wanted for much. Somehow, we managed to vacation by car almost every summer to places across the US. It was these road trips where I most likely got my own passion for travel. East Coast, West Coast, and several places in between... we saw it all. But not only that, local trips too. Many times we just got in the car and went for a drive someplace new. Yes, we were extremely lucky.
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I got my very first camera, a 110-film camera, for Christmas in 1978. A few years later after saving my grass cutting and snow shoveling money, I bought my first 35mm camera, an Olympus XA2. I think it was about $113, which was a LOT at the time. I shot with that for many years, but finally upgraded to an