It's in my blood. My grandfather (no that is not him in the picture, it's just one of my favorite shots I've ever taken) had a passion for photography and a dark room in his basement. I grew up with cameras everywhere. If he could see what I was doing today with all this new technology he'd be SOOOOOO into it. I bought a Canon Digital Rebel XTi last year. I went with that camera rather then the higher end ones so that I could spend more money on lenses. Now I know I made the right decision because I'm completely appreciating figuring out what all the different lenses do and such.

It's funny because I had never heard of Dooce.com until the other day. But, it was her post the other day that opened my eyes to the power of shooting in RAW format. By the way, I found her site through the whole 2000 Bloggers thing which shows that it does have a point.

So, between that post, the latest issue of JPG Magazine arriving yesterday and the constant checking of new Flickr images from my friends I'm getting more and more into using the camera and figure out what I can and can't do with it. Plus, I keep sending in newbie questions to Tips From the Top Floor which is great because I get answers back and his listeners get more content which is the point after all right?

I've started bringing my camera almost everywhere with me. I actually stop and think "which lens do I want to use?" I've still got a long way to go with all the different settings and figuring out which fstop to use and how high the ISO should be. Still don't have all the lingo down yet, but as with any technology or art form the only way you get better is to keep trying, playing and experimenting.

And I'm having a BLAST doing it all!