[baseballboy828]

I am planning on going to Israel this summer. I am going to try to scrape up enough for a dSLR. The tough part is the lenses. I already have a tripod, monopod, and a nice bag. My Powershot S2 IS costs 1/5 of what the cost for 3-4 decent lenses is (about $1200).

Yuiichi, I have a suggestion for you. The tree in the second shot has a lot of potential for a nice B&W shot. Go out in the morning just as the sun is rising, or at night as the sun is setting, but so there is enough light to see easily. Put the camera on a tripod. The picture of the tree you have now suffers from a very common problem. The leaves are blown out by the hard light coming from overhead. This problem could be avoided on an overcast day, but at the beginning of sunset, you could achieve a beam of light coming through the tree, depending on the position of the tree. Don't worry about the weird looks people might give you. I was in Yellowstone national park this summer. Well, being still in High School, I got some weird looks as I with my tripod and bulky camera, while everyone else was carrying around the tiniest cameras available on the market. Just ignore everyone around you.