HelenDuguid wrote:What camera are you using? I am thinking about replacing my wee one that I take walking and I am always keen to see what other people use.
I use a mid-level DSLR - a Canon EOS 550D. Not cheap. A tad over £1,000 with a decent lens. If you want to get more into photography I'd recommend moving to a top end compact rather than a full DSLR - a lot easier to carry about on the hills & a lot easier on the pocket. Something like a Panasonic DMC-LX5 or a Canon Powershot G12. This type of camera offer full manual control and the ability to shot in RAW. The latter is important when it comes to post-production (i.e. Photoshopping). I started with a Panasonic DMC-FZ28 which is a great little thing - a so called "super-zoom" so a bit bigger than a std compact.
I was fairly happy with the straight out of the camera results of my FZ28 but it wasn't till I learnt how to use Photoshop Elements that things really started to improve. So that's my advice: get a decent compact, learn how to use the manual setting & then learn how to tart them up in Photoshop.