Source:www.jimippolito.com

Many digital camera owners are content with taking pictures of their family and friends and documentary type photos of their vacation locations.

Eventually though, as their technique improves, and compliments start coming, such as the famous and flattering, "Ooh, that looks just like a postcard," many amateur photographers begin exploring the "artsy" side of picture taking.

Looking at the work of other photographers, both professionals and talented amateurs, can spark creative ideas, and the next time the family "snap shooter", is in a scenic location he or she suddenly starts to look at objects and scenes in a different way.

Now it's no longer enough to simply record the scene for the sake of reminiscence, the snap shooter now wants to create a work of art, and digital cameras make it easy to get started.

The camera itself will not turn you into a Jay Maisel, or my personal hero, Ansel Adams, but it will allow you to become more of the artist inside yourself, through inexpensive trial and error.

In the 60's we called this "Discovering the inner you", and it's still viable.

I came across the first two parts of a photo essay put together by a highly talented amateur photographer, a medical doctor by profession, who has chronicled his own progression from snap shooter to serious photographer.

Here's part one, and this is part two.

Part three should be published soon.

Check it out for stimulating thought and inspiration, and then get out and start viewing the world around you from different angles, and at different times of the day and year. See what a difference a change in lighting and perspective will show you in your viewfinder or on your LCD.

I took today's picture during September, 2006, at Mount Charleston, about 40 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, with my Kodak P880.