Who is Jeff Hughes, and why might you want to visit his web site?
 
I mentioned on my splash page that “I have an eclectic range of interests”.  That’s certainly true.  It’s also true that I have a personality type (some would argue it’s a personality disorder) which causes me to be passionate about those interests.  When I become interested in something I’m compelled to direct lots of time and attention towards it.  I read about it.  I study it.  I immerse myself in it.  The good news, then, is I tend not to be superficial about things.  Over time I usually become pretty knowledgeable about those interests.  The bad news is that I tend not to have that “life balance” thing that all the magazines and therapists and TV shows say we should all aspire to.  Oh well, some of us like our addictions…  ;-)
 
Outside of family and friends, and reading in general, my two biggest interests are motorcycling and photography.  You’ll see that they receive an inordinate amount of attention here.  Both are life-long interests that have defined who I am, how other people look at me, and how I look at myself.    
 
Motorcycling embraces a lot of different cultures, machines, and activities.  Although I hate pigeon-holing myself, I clearly fall into the “performance” riding corner of the sport.  My current stable includes a BMW K1200RS, a BMW R1200GS, and a Suzuki GSX-R1000. Yes, I like BMW’s.  They invented the sport-touring category of motorcycling a long time ago and still do that niche better than anyone else, as far as I’m concerned.  
 
Why not a Harley?  Well, I like Harley’s just fine.  They look good.  And they sound good.  But they don’t actually go, very good.  Despite the bad-ass sound that they produce, they’re really not very powerful.  By today’s standards they have some of the weakest acceleration and worst power-to-weight ratios in the industry.  Combine that with their poor ground clearance, which limits their ability to corner at any kind of serious speed, and you’re quickly left with the conclusion that the cruiser label that they usually get tagged with is an apt one.  I’ll probably get one when I get too old to go fast.

[Ok, confession time. Despite not being anywhere close to what I consider "too old to go fast", in January 2008 I picked up a brand new Harley-Davidson Road King. As I write this little addendum a couple weeks later, all I can say is that it is a beautiful bike, it has a VERY different ride relative to anything I've ever previously ridden, and... I love it! You can read more in the motorcycling section]

[Adding to the addendum: After riding the Road King for five months and five thousand miles, I can say unequivocally that I have been converted! I still like riding fast. I still like sport bikes and sport tourers. I still like BMW's. I still lust after a Ducati 1098. I'm still smitten with all those things that I always have been, in other words. But what I can now say, without question, is that my new Harley is the finest motorcycle I have ever owned. I am just over-the-top in love with it. It will not be my last Harley.]
 
I’ve been writing for Sport Rider magazine since 2002.  You can usually catch my stuff in the Benchracing column.  An archive of my older material can be found here Sport Rider Articles
 
Photography is my other deep-rooted passion.  My mom bought me a Brownie box camera when I was five or six years old and I remember being entranced by what seemed to be a magical combination of art and technology.  I owned a couple other cheap instamatic-type cameras during the years that followed, but not having the means to either develop my own film or pay for commercial processing, was always limited in how much I could shoot.  That changed in my early twenties when my then-girlfriend bought me my first good camera – a Canon AE-1 – for my birthday. That jump-started a serious interest in the craft which has never abated.
 
I married the girl.

Other interests include guns and shooting; handloading; hunting and fishing - especially fly fishing; history; chess; computers - I'm an old Unix geek; writing; and finance and economics. And probably a few things I've forgotten.

Like I said, an eclectic mix...