Photography advice

So many people have asked me many questions about my work throughout the years and to put it like this, the one thing you have to always keep in mind is to keep it simple.  You are and always will be your own teacher and can spend money on taking several classes about what to do, what not to do, what camera to get, how many megapixels, filters, zoom lenses, fisheye/macro, telephoto, etc, yet in the end, you show yourself how to improve and become your own critic.  What one person looks at on an everyday basis, be different and look at it at a different angle.  Bend down with your camera, get dirty and actually lay on the ground and look up, look at your surroundings, take out any distractions that take the main subject(s) out of the viewer's eye, take 10-20 pictures of the same subject using a different setting that is allowed on your camera, and don't be afraid to save up and get a more expensive camera where you will have a back up just in case.  A lot say, you have a great eye for things....just because of practice.  Just be you and create your own style.  One of the best tricks I've ever learned was to hold your camera phone or camera's lens up to a pair of binoculars if you are far away and snap the picture.  "You do what you are. You're born with a gift. If not that, then you get good at something along the way. And what you're good at, you don't take for granted. You don't betray it." -Along Came A Spider