Thank you one and all for the warm welcomes.

Live and let live. I try not to judge. But will give my opinion. I wouldn't tell someone that wonders why they are taking pictures "that maybe they really don't enjoy it enough..." because questioning why is a way of defining direction, purpose, style, and yes sometimes whether you should continue or not. I think everyone wonders why or if they should continue doing what they do. It's how one improves. Asking why is central to the field of quality and productivity. In fact it's often said "ask why five times". Just my $0.02. Thanks

Thsnks everyone for the warm welcome.

My view in case any cares. 😊
I pretty much agree. I don't consider the piece to be doom and gloom at all. Like a holes everybody got one and this is the authors. No reason to be insulting if you don't agree just say so and state reasons why or ignore it.
IMHO the average person buying a P&S typically will only print 4x6 and the occasional 5x7 or even 8x10. The camera phone is certainly capable enough for that. Where the slr, slt, ilc come into play, IMHO, is when you need reach, long glass, or when you become more interested in photography as an art form rather than just capturing the moment. People generally just capturing the moment don't spend time on wildlife, nature, or landscape photography. There is one thing I'd like to correct or add to the original article is that phone camera's like the one I have, the Nokia 1020 no longer in production, is capable of complete manual mode and even shooting their version of a raw file up to 32MP.
Just ny $0.02.

I am a lot the same. I primarily take pictures for myself because I enjoy the art and when appropiate just catching the moment. When just catching moment I prefer everything be as close to perfect, i.e. exposure, wb, focus, etc, but like you in those moments just getting the shot is what I want. I too am retired, just a year ago. When I go out to shoot wildlife, nature, landscape, etc I try to be more deliberate because then it's about the art.
Just my $0.02.

Thank you. We have something similar here, the grounds of Indianapolis Museum of Art, Holcomb Gardens on the Butler University campus and Garfield Gardens Conservatory.

Thank you.

I used LR and PSE for years and now LRCC and and even though PS is bundled with it I don't need it so I still use PSE. I am not a LR or PS or deciple and really don't even like image processing or manipulation. But if you're even half serious about photography than at least PSE gets my vote. Great for a begginer and offers tools for you to learn as well as organize your images. One of the biggest issues faced by photographers amateur and professional is Digital Asset Management or DAM. A fancy way to say "where the heck are my pictures". With PSE if you decide later to go to LR it will offer to automatically convert your catalog.

Hi all,
First let me say I am very happy to join ypur group and I hope to be an asset as well as learn a thing or two.
I am located in Indianapolis, IN. I am from southern Indiana, Mt. Vernon. Please don't confuse it with North Vernon or Fortville (they have a Mt. Vernon High School).
I am married have 5 grandchildren between 18 and 5 years old. I am retired from the non-industrial quality assurance and quality control field.
I started in photography in my 40s, some 26 years ago. I started out using P&S equipment and eventually moved to TSLR and to SLR. My SLR vendor of choice has always been Minolta and now of course Sony. However, I do not consider myself an equipment snob. In other words I respect the choice of others to use whatever equipment they choose. I started with Minolta because when I purchased my first SLR it's what felt good in my hands and the controls felt natural. Of course that was the film days when there wasnt such a big emphasis on "what the camera does" other than being something to hold the film. I still occasionally shoot film because I like the discpline it evokes. My first digital cameras were the Sony Mavica and Olympus C5050 both of which I still have. I am not a pixel peeper. I hope that doesn't offend anyone I don't care if you are it's just my way of saying not to expect me to engage in topics like who has best low light sensitivity, etc.
I've had some formal education in general photography including film development as well as portrait photography.
I have worked for various national portrait studios where I learned to use medium format equipment and a massive Camerz long roll camera which shot 70mm film yielded a 6x9 cm negative. To change film we used a black bag and had to learn to change it without being able to see what we were doing. It was typically used for "school day" portraits. Also, for a short time I ran my own portrait and wedding studio. Now my primary photographic interest are wildlife, nature, and landscape photography.