Singing Swan I noticed you are from Spruce Pine area in NC and that's a beautiful area in the mountains. I worked as one of those infamous traveling photographers for many years and had the privilege of doing a portrait fundraising program there years ago. I did have an adventure getting there though. I was coming up the mountain from Johnson City TN when the snow started. About halfway up my van spun out as I rounded a curve in the already deep snow. When it finally stopped I was on the edge getting ready to fall over the side into a very deep ravine...not good! :thumbdown: I had to ease back down the mountain and come up the Ashville way. I'll never forget that trip! Anyway just thought I would share my episode on your big big hill! ;-)

I live in Greensboro and Went through the same learning curv youare going through . saving in Raw and Jpeg will fillup your hard drive real quick Raw files are twice as large as Jpeg . If you are not editing your photos wioth a program like Lightroom 3 which I use or Photo shop or some other program that reads and edits raw files there is no need to save raw files.
I recommend you download www.photoscape .com and download that editing program which as far as I know only reads jpeg files . And start using that for yor jpegs . I now use Lightroom 3 to use an the program to edit my Raw files and then convert them to JPEG , There is a significant learning curve with LR3 not as difficult at Photo Shop but still a challeng e If you go the LR3 way make sure to get an instruction book or two to guide you I use Scott Kelbys book and Nat Coalson's book I have been using for over a year and have not come close to mastering the entire program but I have become pretty competent at editing rtaw images and aving them to jpegs and posting . You can see some of my stuff at www.Smugmug.com put WillD in the search box and when my picture come up click on it andyou will be take to my galleries
Any questions cal me at 336 545 4567 Good shooting