suggest you look into taking a local community college or other
similar intro to photography course. the structure will be good for a
beginner, no matter ehat age.

don't bother replying to catfish@hotmall.com
or even catfish@hotmail.com
just reply to the newsgroup and i will catch it there

the suggestion to take a course is a good one.  It doesn't have to be a
long course, or an in-depth course do give you a lot of good ideas about
taking good pictures.  A subscription to a photography magazine will
also give you a lot of good ideas.  If you're located in New England or
other areas where there are organized amateur camera clubs you can learn
an awful lot by joining one.

The manual that came with your camera is essential reading, and so is
experimentation with its features.

Some sites which may be useful are:

http://www.dpreview.com/
http://ir.webphotoschool.com/
http://www.aljacobs.com/
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints.html
http://www.megapixel.net/html/articles.php
http://robertdfeinman.com/tips/index.html

If you're going to print at home
http://digitaldog.net/files/PrinterTestfile.jpg.hqx can be a very useful
file to help sync your monitor and printer.

Have fun and good luck,
Bernie
http://dqd.com/~bmayoff/