I'm not really sure where I first heard about LivingInHD – I use Google Reader to scan a variety of technology blogs, so I suspect I found references to it from a number of sites, all at roughly the same time. The idea of being able to get information directly from the manufacturer and sharing information with other people about products I already owned seemed like a great fit.

I'd have to say my favorite is probably the ‘Old Stone Bridge', for 2 reasons: first, it was taken in the town I grew up in, and I have very pleasant memories of friends who lived nearby. Second, I took that picture on a day where I just had a little bit of free time while on vacation – I didn't plan for a particular time when the light or the weather would be just right, but by chance, all the conditions happened to be perfect for the shot when I got there.

Most of my knowledge about composition, exposure, depth of field, etc. come from the days when I was learning
to use a film-based SLR. I found books by John Hedgecoe to be particularly readable and comprehensive. The advent of digital photography has helped me enormously in two ways: first, I find that I'm much better at stopping and using the view screen on the back of my Panasonic DMC-TZ1 to really look at a photo's composition before pressing the shutter release than I ever was at doing this through an SLR viewfinder. Second, digital cameras have simply allowed me to take a LOT more pictures – I don't have to pay to print every shot I take just see how it turned out. In addition, the 10X zoom combined with the modest size of the DMC-TZ1 makes it easier to have the camera with me more often and to zoom in on what I want to capture.

Two great suggestions that I'm sure I've found online (possibly from the LivingInHD 'Tip of the Day') are:
experiment with moving the horizon line around – if you're shooting a pleasant scene, try several shots, moving
the horizon towards the top and the bottom of the frame. The second tip is: transfer everything to your computer, and take a careful look at how a photo appears on a larger screen before deleting anything – higher pixel counts
in newer cameras can allow for creative cropping without noticeable loss of detail.

My current digital camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 with 10X zoom. I also own an SA-XR50
audio receiver, a DVD-F87 5 disc DVD/CD changer, and for vinyl, a Technics SL-23 turntable.

The receiver has a digital amplifier, so it’s small, runs cool, and sounds amazing with my CD collection converted to lossless FLAC format, stored on a hard drive, and played through a tiny media player. It allows me to get great sound in my living room from a very compact, but high performance system.

My living room also has a DVD-F97 5 disc changer – incredibly slim, and allowing me to always have multiple discs queued up and ready to go.

I still have my Technics by Panasonic SL-23 turntable (much older than you, Kate, I’m sure), in my
basement media room, to play the vinyl that I can’t bear to part with…