Of dreams and photography

I love photography. I've always loved taking photos (which is what led me to scrapbooking: what to do with all these photos?), but that's not quite the same thing. Now that I have had the digital camera for 8 or 9 months, I have discovered a true passion for photography. For being able to capture the beauty that I see around me in the most ordinary things.

I am searching the internet for as much information as I can find to get a better understanding of exposure, and all the little quirks, like white balance, that go along with digital photography. I plan to take a class, either online, or an actual course. (I'm leaning towards online because I have a feeling understanding exposure in French is gonna be hard as heck!).

I now take my camera with me everywhere (sorry honey, I mean our camera!) and I am getting over that feeling of dorkiness when I whip it out to capture shots of just about anything. I figure the worst that can happen is that someone thinks I'm a professional, right?

Speaking of which, I do have dreams of doing this professionally. I read somewhere that many great photographers, like Ansel Adams, had a different career previous to photography. I figure why not me? I am at a crossroads in my career, and this plus scrapbooking could be my chance to take a different direction. You never know right?