Let's see. I am in my 26th year of teaching. I have the equivalent of six years of college with about a 3.9 GPA. I do continuing education courses via webinars on a regular basis, and firmly believe in the idea that education is a life long process. One thing I have learned in all that education is not to use stereotypes. i.e. to judge all teachers by some offbeat story. I've also learned that when one of my students makes an outrageous claim about say another student that I must get everyone together that was involved to get a clear picture of what really happened. In other words it is easy to jump to conclusions, but I must get my facts straight before making a judgement.

I have a 15" macbook pro. I finally "caved in" and got it after my last pc died. This was more than three years ago and I have no regrets. The bundled software is amazing. iPhoto is good. I upgraded to Aperture which I'm guessing is similar to Photo Shop in all the bells and whistles. The one caveat is their is a learning curve as with anything new. There are mac forums online that can be helpful. Apple has tons of good tutorials on their site, and if you live near an Apple Store I would recommend that you pay the $99 for the One to One training. Get the macbook. You will not regret it.

I,too, eagerly sit at the foot of the master :shock: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/compose_reply.jsp?topicnum=61516#

Yes. I have a Macbook Pro laptop. Just download and read.

I've lived where there are all black squirrels, Moline, Illinois, and all white ones, Olney, Illinois, but never saw a partial blond.

Here is something that I ran across and purchased. It greatly improved my focusing technique (which I had none) my pictures are starting to show improvement.
http://james-brandon.com/tack-sharp-a-step-by-step-guide-to-nailing-focus/

hope it helps,
Dawn[/quote]
Thanks so much, Dawn, for this post. I just learned a lot looking at the 10 page preview. This is a very useful and easy to read.

Welcome Running Girl. I thought the Brits called it the "Chunnel."
Maybe it is like people from San Francisco cringe when they hear "Frisco."

Happy birthday. Have you seen the Swamp People on History channel? I saw a little bit last night. Very interesting.

Thanks.

Thanks for the insight!

I took this image at the St. Louis Zoo. I was fascinated by the symmetry. Was hoping to get advice on which pic strikes your fancy and how could I improve it.

This was part of a Memorial for 9-11 victims at the ten year anniversary. There were 3000 flags with victim info on each pole. I thought it would also be a nice tribute here on Memorial Day 2012.

Beautiful!

Cindy,
I, too, struggle with storage. A backup hard drive strictly for pictures is a good idea along with a back up drive for Time Machine (that backs up everything) Also I have iPhoto and Aperture. The latter takes up much less space for photos because it stores the master as is, but all the versions are stored sort of like a thumbnail. If you have an Apple Store nearby, ask them to explain the difference to you. BTW I still use iPhoto for some projects, but you can do a LOT more with Aperture.