Hello from the "Great Pacific North-Wet",
My name is Carl and I'm a somewhat frustrated amateur photographer who has gone over the years from Pentax K1000 SLR's to P&S and then to Canon 20D and now, believe it not, back to P&S (though I still have all previous cameras). A lot of my frustration probably stems from my impatience when it comes to studying post-processing, especially Photoshop CS2. (I'm also a Mac user and just bought Aperture 3, which seems to be a dog on my MacBook.)
The only subject I'm not really interested in is probably portraits, mainly because I am very reluctant to point a camera at people. I'm fortunate to live in an unusually photogenic region, so there is no shortage of amazing landscapes and natural attractions. (A small herd of elk just crossed our driveway.)
I was attracted to this forum and website when I noticed the subtitle, "a learning community". I've tried a couple of other photography forums and soon became discouraged by their often harsh criticism and ego-driven competitiveness. I'm not trying to be a "great" photographer but I would like to improve my skills as I enjoy it so much.
The photograph I include here is of a street dog we rescued in Mexico. I call it, "Poco's Great Leap" as it captures his reaction when he was first introduced to the Northwest woods. It was also one of the first shots taken with the 20D and in spite of some obvious problems with focus, remains my all-time favorite.
cheers, Carl