Well, I guess it's fitting that the newbie posts first! As some of you may know, I recently purchased my first "real" camera, a Canon 20D, from a guy in Lincoln on craigslist. It was a good deal (ask Mike), but I am still using a borrowed lens (EF-S 18-55mm) and shooting on automatic. I'm thankful for the helpful suggestions and hints from the rest of the guys, and I'm very excited to hear your thoughts on these submissions.

When Mike suggested "color" as the theme, I instantly thought of crayons. I had this still-life in my head, but wasn't able to get a new box of crayons in time. Then, the kids came home today and had to get 100 of any candy to celebrate the 1o0th day of school tomorrow, and my lovely wife bought a bag of M&M's. Perfect! Color! So I set up a black background and started shooting. I used some overhead light and a side light (as suggested my Mike), and started shooting. I took them from several different angles, including some that you would not normally look from.

I also took a series of "stop-motion" photos that I will post on my facebook page as a video somehow, but for now, please enjoy these colorful photos...

At first, I just threw all the M&M's out on the table and took some pictures with all the colors, and then I thought it would be more interesting with a single red one.

I think I like the 4th and 5th ones the best though. Something about the side angle on the 4th, and something about how they all fill up the frame in the 5th one.