I am not a professional photographer. I am pursuing my PhD in theoretical Computer Science and I enjoy photography. Nearly all I what I have to say about photography comes with my experience with my EOS 350d that I have had for about 2 years, at the time of this writing. Hence take my opinions and suggestions with some discretion.

The art of "painting with light" has many ingredients. There are matters of spirit that each person brings - your aesthetics, your sense of beauty, your evaluation of what is worth shooting, etc. And then there are aspects of photography that involve understanding the nature of the machine and laws that govern it. To the latter part, I realized only recently, that I can apply my relatively abundant geekiness, potentially compensating part of my shortcomings in aesthetics. Hence my blog entries about photography.

Of course, some have more skill.