I purchased my first DSLR on March 3, 2008. A Nikon D80 with the kit lens 18-55VR.

 

My only other camera was a point and shoot digital. I never used film cameras. My point and shoot was used for family gatherings and vacations.

 

I decided to purchase a DSLR for a family reunion in Hawaii this year. In my experience the point and shoot's cannot cut it for sunsets and after dark photos.

 

After using the Nikon D80 I was blown away with the quality and versatility. For the first time I am excited about photography. I started using the manual mode and reading up on all things DSLR related. I came across information related to HDR and software processing specifically related to digital photography. Software processing made sense to me so I purchased Photomatix for HDR and DxO Optics/Adobe Elements for image manipulation.

 

After using the camera for a short time I took some night shots with exposures up to 1-3 seconds and was amazed at the color saturation displayed. At the present time my interest remains in late evening photography because of the color saturation.

 

I am just a beginner and have lots to learn but it is fun learning photography.

 

Update: March 2010

Guess I really enjoy this photography because I purchased a Nikon D700 and 24-70mm lens. I also purchased Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom. I am busy learning how to use all of my new tools. I want to learn as much as I can and be as good as I can be.