In the meantime, I've recently upgraded to a Canon EOS 10D digital camera. The 10D is awesome: 6.3 megapixels, exchangeable lenses, a terrific, solid body, and amazing image quality. Having a D-SLR is a HUGE improvement. I think my photographic technique will improve a lot now that I have this camera. Having a 35mm-quality image without the pain and expense of developing film and going through the laborious process of scaning the slides—well, it's a giant improvement.

I've collected several excellent lenses for the 10D:

• Tamron XR 17-35mm f/2.8-3.5 SP AF DI LD IF wide-angle zoom
• Tamron XR 28-75mm f/2.8 SP AF DI LD IF standard zoom
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM prime-focus lens
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM telephoto zoom
• Sigma EX 50-500mm f/4-6.3 APO HSM superzoom
• Tamron SP 1.4X and 2X teleconverters

I've also purchased the Canon 550EX Speedlight flash unit, any number of UV and circular polarizing filters, and a number of special-purpose Cokin filters (neutral density and graduated colors, mostly for exposure control, but also to colorize the skies when they don't suit my needs). I also have a very good, heavy duty Bogen tripod and a LowePro MiniRoller AW pack, which has wheels and a handle as well as the requisite shoulder and waist straps and a tripod holder for cross-country treks.

I also now have a miniscule Canon PowerShot A70 for emergencies. It's not the highest resolution camera around, but it has good color fidelity, little chromatic aberration or fringing, and is very compact.

I've been studying several good books on digital photography. Most are aimed at entry-level point-and-shoot camera owners, but there are more and more excellent resources for users of professional and prosumer digicams. Here are some good titles:

• Digital Nature Photography by Mark Hatasaka (ISBN 0-9745-1210-9)
  • A splendid book chock-full of useful and practical advice. Most of the photos were taken with a 5 megapixel Nikon D1, and a 3 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 995. The print quality is excellent, and demonstrates what a creative and patient photographer can do with what these days might be considered midrange cameras. Focuses on photographic technique, not on image post-processing.
• Advanced Digital Photography Techniques by Tom Ang (ISBN 0-8174-3273-6)
  • A very good book. Tom Ang is an excellent technical writer, and explains many complex topics with great clarity and precision. I love his work. This book provides many insights into improving both photographic technique and post-processing to get the most out of the photos you have. Here's a link to a search page that shows several of his excellent books.
• The New Manual of Photography by John Hedgecoe (ISBN 0-7894-9637-2)
• Photographing Landscapes by John Hedgecoe (ISBN 1-85585-764-2)
  • John Hedgecoe is an excellent writer and photographer. These two books are hugely informative. The prints in Landscapes have a rather grainy film look, but the techniques are of course applicable to digital photography as well. The Manual is comprehensive and serves as an excellent resource for beginning as well as advanced photographers, and includes a lot of useful information for digital photographers.
• Mastering Flash Photography by Susan McCartney (ISBN 0-8174-4545-5)
  • I was reluctant to dive into flash photography, for all of the usual novice photographer reasons: flash photos look artificial, I've never been able to get a good looking flash image, etc. etc. But I knew flash units were useful if only to provide fill while shooting backlit subjects outdoors, and I wanted to be able to do that. This book proved to me that learning flash techniques is not only easy, but in challenging lighting conditions, absolutely necessary. And the built-in flash on my 10D just wasn't good enough. So I upgraded to a hot-shoe flash, and now I'm thinking about upgrading to giant hand-held flash units. Whoo hoo! Maybe I'll be able to take a flash photo of the Moon at this rate.