Beautiful photography. I love your composition; you're inspiring.

Beautiful photography, Dennis. Now it's on my list of places to visit to my trip to Maine and the Atlantic provinces.

I'd have to agree.

Red Rock Park: I agree, an easily accessible and beautiful location.

As in any city, take the usual precautions with your wallet, camera bag, etc. There are professionals who make their living by picking pockets, bags, etc. The Strip is well lit and probably has more security cameras per block than B&H has in their warehouse. I think the higher risk is off the strip, in the garages, etc.

Also, I think the crooks are looking for the inebriated who are easier marks.

I guess for me the thrill isn't in the gear (although it's fun to get new toys) or film v digital, or post processing or new techniques.

It's about showing another person (and maybe yourself) the beauty and truth in our world. Causing an emotional reaction (happy, sad, awe, angry, etc.) is what art is about. Photography is not different than painting, music, dance.

Like love, our ability to create is a gift from God and it only exists when we share it.

Sorry if I sound philosophical or sentimental.

A very good place to start is the Strobist:
http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

If you are planning to drive, I would take I-95 and stopping in Mystic, Connecticut. The Mystic Seaport is a wonderful re-creation of a 19th century whaling port with several tall ships and nautical memorabilia. Take a look at some of my shots at a brief visit there last month:
https://flic.kr/s/aHsk8sgcPY

You may be able to improve the photos in post but I would suggest that perhaps you could consider different compositions of your photos. In the first photo, that big white garage door overwhelms the beautiful flowering tree. Move around so that the tree is against a darker background. In the second and third photos, I would suggest moving much closer to the subjects, which I assume are the flowers.

I would think that the sling type bag is your best bet. You can also check your larger bag with the coat room at most museums (if you're trusting), although I found out that they will not accept a bag with a laptop.

I love my Nex 7. Images are great. Menus are a pain but you just learn. I got David Bush's book and that helped a lot. I've got a couple of sweet minolta primes. Lots of fun.

I've got the Wacom Intuos small tablet and find it to be very helpful in editing. It takes some getting used to but is much more accurate than a mouse. And certainly more accurate than a touch pad.

http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-Touch-Small-Tablet/dp/B00EN27U9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418073144&sr=8-1&keywords=wacom+tablet

Right place at the right time.

I'm reminded of my days in pilot training when my instructor would yell at me to "Get your head out!" There were two meanings to this invocation: The first was to stop looking at the instruments and look for other aircraft, the ground, etc. The second was to get my head out of my a**. Situational awareness, they called it.

I can't take credit for it but I've heard it said, "When you see a gaggle of photographers taking pictures, turn around and look for the shot that no one else can see."

I shoot in RAW and download into Lightroom where the photos are filed by date onto an external drive that is backed up. I delete mistakes (otherwise I would have an extensive library of my feet, the ground and the sky). I immediately assign keywords (flowers, granddaugher, client, location, etc.) and I then go through the pictures and rate them (4 or 5 stars) that I will consider for post processing. I also stack photos that I took with 3 bracketed exposures for possible HDR processing.

As you can see to the responses, everyone has their own system and there are no "right" or "wrong" ways of doing this.