The non-shooting issue is a function of te autofocus which probably men's you are either too close to your subject or I could be lighting. I have te t3i and love it! Get out of auto mode and know that you will probably have to manually focus close and lw light.

I'm no expert but the first thing to hit me was high iso setting. Take it off auto and set it for conditions. 100 - 200 during day should work. Shoot in RAW format also. This way even if you underexpose because of the lower iso you have a less noisy shot and will most likely be able to recover it in pp. the canon editing software is actually quite good if you dont have other post processing software.

Bottom line, get out of auto mode. Just my $.02.

Dittos to rpavich and Otis above. The books by Peterson are excellent, inexpensive, and entertaining! After that, shoot whenever and wherever you can!

Final point - I'm jealous!

I only have one setting on mine unless I want to set it up manually. I would think that you could take the same shot once under each setting and see which looks most 'natural' to you. Photography is as much art as science so your creativity should take precedence. At least that's my .02 cents!

I picked up my t3i in July of this year after holding out for a long time. To date I've shot over 9,000 pics with it. RMM says learn something about it every day - true words! Don't be afraid to experiment. Pixels are free!

If you are into reading before doing then the Magic Lantern books, owner manual, etc. are great. Bryan Peterson has several excellent books on photography that have helped me tremendously! The folks on here (most of them) are also a good sounding board.

Enjoy the camera!

Thank you. The truly odd thing about it was that it was among the first shots off the day and just a stop along the road on the way to st Augustine. It was much later in the day when I actually looked at it. I've had it happen a few times now - capturing a mood. Wish I knew better how it worked!!

I picked a cheap Belkin that I'm sure was way overpriced at Best Buy (I needed it and they had it). I would look for something that is usb3.0 compatible. Your current machine may not be, but your next computer probably will have the faster bus. I don't see the need to spend more than $50 no matter which way you go. Check out newegg if you can wait on shipping. You'll probably be able to find something for 1/5th the price.

I think I find myself in total agreement with you! I ran a catering company one and know weddings from that perspective - well that and being the 'planner' for my daughter's. We got so lucky with a friend of a friend who has gone onto to become locally known, but I would never think to be critical or offer advice about how to shoot a wedding (or any important portrait for that matter)! I have enough trouble shooting inanimate subjects.

Might be a hair off. To be honest I wasn't looking at it - but I know I most definetly should!

Thanks! I do need to add that since the light was so lousy I took the picture into monochrome. Just provides a little more 'mystery?' to the picture.

Playing a little with time exposures. This was 6 seconds with ISO 200 set using a 70-300 lens I recently picked up. The reality is that the water was actually quite choppy so getting any type of reflection from the lights without slowing the shutter would have been impossible.

Lion's Bridge - St Augustine

It was one of those late fall days where the sky wasn't participating in adding any color (other than dull gray). Better shots from later in the evening are coming. Wanted to get some feedback on this one though.

On The Beach

Those are absolutely amazing!!

Dan, et.al.

Taking the advice I got earlier I cropped to drop the horizon into the bottom 3rd and give the shot something a little more panoramic. I also bumped a few other characteristics with the limited toolset available within iPhoto. This shot was entirely in jpg format and I do need to start shooting in RAW since really storage is a non-issue (i dump my card after nearly every shoot).

I cut down on the export size so if it loses a little clarity in the process please accept my apologies.

Thanks again for the wonderful advice received thus far. I've been on the forums a few short days and had the opportunity to read through a number of posts. This is a great place to learn and develop an inner passion into something that can be shared with everyone else!

The Joshua Tree

More than happy to.