New Toy: Oylmpus E-620 SLR Camera

I picked up a new toy today.  I hope that by learning to be a good bird photographer, it might bring my birding blog to a new and better level.  After about an hour of instruction at Idaho Camera (and I'm going back for much more) I decided to test out the ISO and aperture settings and Area of Focus aspects of the camera.

Below is my very first image with this camera (click to enlarge):

I like the warmth of the evening sun on the owls and the one yellow eye of the momma owl.  ISO 400 at 150mm.

I didn't like the light as much on this shot, but I had the two owlets looking my way.  This was at the same settings, just a few minutes later.

Then I took that first shot and played with it in Photoshop Elements (which I really don't know how to use yet either).  I lightened some of the shadowy areas and warmed the colors just a bit more and got this result:

Boy have I got a lot to learn!  If you are a great birding photographer, please invite me to go birding with you so I can learn how to use this thing.