Learning about photography

[MsSassyBaskets]

Hi all,

I'm wondering what resources you would recommend for someone wanting to up their hobby photography skills? I have a Nikon d3100 with the kit lens and understand and use all the basic functions, and I use it primarily to take photos of travel and my cats() as well as some random outdoors shots around town when I'm bored. I took b&w film photography in college, but a lot of our time was spent on developing and printing. I'd like to learn more about good shot composition and intermediate-level technical skills. I also do basic color & contrast correction, cropping and other minor edits using The GIMP (I'm too cheap to pay for software at this point...), but I'd like to learn more about post-production skills as well. I don't have any visions of getting to the professional level, but I'd love to put some fun stuff on our walls and maybe gain portraiture skills for good pictures of family and friends. I'm sort of getting into scrapbooking right now as well, so you can see the connection. Clearly I have a lot of solitary hobbies because I am SO BORED with DH in school. At this point I can't afford to pay for a class or anything like that. I might be able to justify a new lens purchase after I've improved my skills a bit more. Any books, free websites, etc. that you can recommend?

For your reference and entertainment, here is the lovely Freyja:
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[bobk]

I highly recommend The Digital Photographer's Handbook by Tom Ang. I bought it maybe ten years ago but it still looks pretty current. He covers a little of everything about equipment including cameras, computers, printers and scanners. He also discusses basic composition and lighting techniques, plus how to correct these things later on with software (Photoshop, but GIMP is so similar). It may sound like too much for one book, but it's very well done and nicely illustrated with his own work.

[ladymoreta]

Pretty kitty! I also take pictures as a hobby only - no interest in starting a business. I got my best tutorial from a local photographer who did a one-evening class for around $100 per person. I see similar classes on Groupon occasionally. Pioneer Woman also has a great explanation on her site. I think a previous post was bumped today linking to it.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Thanks guys!

[GreyhoundsRUs]

I took a class through our community college's "continuing ed" program. It was a 8 week course, and I feel like I got a lot out of it. I also took the intermediate course by the same instructor!

[niener]

Aww gorgeous kitty cat!!!

The sites linked to on the other thread are a great place to start. I also second the recommendation to check out local camera club offerings or college's night class offerings. I used to be terrible at judging/critiquing my own work (I'm still not great but am much better than I was) but eventually you'll get to a point where the only way to improve will be to have someone with much more knowledge and experience than yourself view and critique your work.