Largely due to the large amount of traveling Dave and I were fortunate to do last year, I’ve rediscovered my love of photography. So much so that I’ve outgrown our little Pentax Optio S4 point and shoot that we keep in an Altoids tin. I’m in the market for a digital SLR and Dave’s been extremely helpful by doing a lot of research into the options and making recommendations.
Even though I know I can take much better shots with an SLR, I do feel slightly intimidated. I do know how to operate one, although it has been years. My concern comes from the fact that I’ve been taking pretty decent shots with a crappy camera for so long that I expect myself to take super fantastic breath-taking shots with a camera that’s probably going to run me about a thousand bucks. What if I don’t? What if my shots only improve slightly? I’m not concerned enough to forego getting the camera of my dreams, but it does linger there in the back of my mind. My goal is to ensure that this insecurity doesn’t get in the way of improving my skills and taking photographic risks!
Just for fun, following are some of my favorite snaps from my Awesome Shots set:
Interestingly enough, following are a couple of my most viewed snaps from my Flickr account:
Go figure!
A little bit of wisdom 
I’m a big fan of Canon DSLRs. They are excellent cameras and Canon has fantastic customer service. You can start with an entry-level model, like the Rebel XTi. Buy it without the kit lens and instead buy a better one right away.
There’s a lot of cool groups here:
http://photo.meetup.com/cities/us/ca/mountain_view/?from=loc_pick