Yeah, and that tower was only 30' away from me, I had to wait for a break in the fog to get that.

2 and 3 look the same to me

Whats the rookie mistake?

It looks like a great photo to me.. Im just a run of the mill, guy with no photography experience though.. now you got me curious on what is the mistake.. lol

You can see a reflection of the camera on the bumper...

X2?? Does it have to do with the dark lines/ area on the front right part of the bumper going behind the fog light.. maybe it's a shadow on the ground that it picked up in the reflection?
Awesome photos tho! I like the first and 3rd ones best.

idiot

#1 is the best.

#2 is too light and #3 is too dark.

And to go with your tripod reflection you have a plant growing out of its nose.

Still a great photo though   and I like the filter you threw on top.

Another shot...

...I was wondering whats in your library.

My library is the internet.
I would say the first book to read cover to cover is the camera manual. It's probably the most important part. If you don't know what your camera can do or how to do it, then taking good pictures for the conditions you are in is difficult.
F2.8 is just the aperature, you probably won't need to go lower until you start getting really creative. The fastest lens I have is a 50mm F1.8 and that cost me $99 shipped. They get expensive when you get in to IS lenses.

The best thing to do would be to know what the different camera settings do.
Example:
Low F-Stop number = faster shutter speed available and more bokeh in the background
High F-Stop number = slower shutter speed available and perfect focus of background
Low shutter speed = more vibrant colors, light trails, night exposures
High shutter speed = freeze frame action
Low ISO number = less noise, slower shutter speed
High ISO number - more noise, faster shutter speed

Basically, start with your camera manual, take some test shots with different settings and see how they differ
Also check this out: http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Photography/Lessons/1046.php

Another example:
You can take the same shot with these different settings:
ISO 50
F1.8
S-8000
Or
ISO 3200
F36
S-60

The difference is color and noise.

I really haven't been inspired lately as I seem to have gotten lazy and bored with my camera. I hope it doesn't last. A shot from Pacifica Pier. Nothing special but a cool shot.

Thanks Kyle.  That's what I was expecting, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  I know all about the tech stuff, I was just wondering if you had some good reads beside the owner's manual.  

Yeah, sorry I don't have more. As for me, I went on the internet to find shots that I liked and then searched for how to take them. Lots of searching and taking throw away pictures.

Edit: Browsing the books this morning and this one looks pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0715329405/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_1#noop
Best thing to do would be to go to a book store and look through them. You'll want to look for the books that explain how to make the shots better with a lot of technical talk.

Edit2: http://www.apertureacademy.com/how-to.php

I really haven't been inspired lately as I seem to have gotten lazy and bored with my camera. I hope it doesn't last. A shot from Pacifica Pier. Nothing special but a cool shot.

I like the sun rays!

I purchased Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies

That's probably a great book.
If you can learn to use all the settings on your camera properly you can take a very dull subject, and take an amazing photo.

Check out these photos from 1x.com one of my favorite photography sites:

I've got a good topic... when you shoot out in public or anywhere (cars, people, etc.) what is appropriate to post on the web?


Mini, that site is AWESOME! Thank you.

What is a good photoshop and raw editor to use?? I use Corel Paint Shop Pro X for my photo shop and Raw Shooter Essentials 2006 for my Raw editor..