What's Next after Ireland and Scotland?

Well, I have finished my postings on Ireland and Scotland after a month of a rather steady diet of editing photos and and attempting to perfect my narratives describing the trip.  I plan to move away from the focus on Travel and begin to look at the photographic process in an effort to improve not only my technical skills with the camera and with post processing software, but also to experiment creatively with some of the other photos I have taken this summer.  If I hold true to this new goal, then there should be additional postings on the Page, entitled "Photos of Interest" during the next few weeks.  I have decided to give a trial run to lynda.com to help me with improving my photography.  If it works, it may be worth the $250 per year investment to get educational support not only in photography, but also in a variety of other areas.  When I look at the cost factor, a year's subscription to lynda.com equals a five session course at Silvermine.  What is missing, I suspect, from the online learning is a way to interact with others and share work.  However, I believe it is worth a try.  I plan to comment on my progress with this venture over the next several months using this blog.  Below is a photo taken at Cape Cod in August, 2014 with a Macro Filter of 10X.   I may choose to use this photo for my experimentation with the camera and the follow-up software process.  The photo below has been cropped to focus on the very center of the flower.  I have not made any other changes  with post processing software.  Good photographers believe the actual photo is best framed with the initial shot using the camera. I need to work on using the manual settings to get the types of effects I want.  I also need to take the time to plan a shot properly, even using a tripod if necessary.  I rarely have had the patience for such planning.  However, I have learned that Lightroom and a program such as Pixelmator can provide a sense of mystery to an original photo that can result in interesting outcomes.  My objective is to find the proper balance for what works for me and gives me satisfaction in what I shoot.