After looking through all your great photos over the years I have bought a camera to learn how to get really great shots.
The Canon EOS Rebel T2i 550D with EF-S 18-55 IS II Kit, EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 III.
Have it on the charger now and went to Amazon and found a great deal on a Canon DSLR camera backpack,Filters,
Cleaning kit, remote shutter control extra batteries and 2/32gb Trancend class 10 SD cards. Camera arrived today
the rest will follow over the coming week.

Very nice, looks like you'll be having some fun with it. That's quite a few goodies, too.

Thanks Ken, plan on taking my time learning this, since its all new to me. Been a point and shoot camera user
for so long. But I have done my research, took over 8 months of planning before deciding this would suit me
best.

What kinds of things do you plan on shooting most? What motivated you to get a DSLR?

I love taking nature shots and landscapes. Waterfalls to weather. Never was into portrait shooting. I always
felt they kind of dirtied up my shot in landscapes. I have thousands of shots on Flickr to give you an idea
what my tastes are for shooting. I am really looking forward to testing out time lapse shooting in hd with it.
going to try getting night time lapse of the stars. Once I learn how.

Jim

Wow, that's quite a number of photos you have posted.

For me, one of the biggest advantages a DSLR has over a point-and-shoot camera, or a phone camera, is speed. It will focus quickly, and allow you to cycle several photos in a short period of time. Of course that comes with a larger size, so it's not always as convenient to have with you when you want it.

I wasn't aware that camera had any time-lapse video capability in it, so I will be interested to hear how that works out for you.

I still have a lot to learn, reading though the 260 page introduction manual. Downloaded the PDF and found it easier to read on my 42" LED
Monitor. Those small books were making my eyes hurt. Bifocals don`t help.

Had read somewhere about setting up time lapse filming. Use to do it with my 1080P camcorder and compress the video. Worked out great.
The larger size the better, I have all kinds of space for video and big pictures. 4/1tb internal drives. 5 external 500gb/1tb drives.
Even my Dell XPS 17 notebook has it all.

I don't know how into the time lapse stuff you want to get, but I've seen some pretty cool stuff from this company's device:

http://dynamicperception.com/

Here's a sample video:

http://dynamicperception.com/video/landscapes-volume-two

I think it works with about any DSLR that does video.

Ken, I learned quite bit from these guys, even pre-purchased his film so my name will be in it.
Reading through the blog and forums is interesting.

http://timescapes.org/

Very impressive, thanks for the link!