You made me curious about how many pictures I've taken over the past 18 months. It seems I've averaged better than 17 per day for a total of 9,441 pictures. I agree totally with the comment about how instant feed back improves the learning curve. You can see right away what works and what doesn't. With the high capacity memory cards there's practically no limit to how many pictures you can take, too.

Not only that but the quality of the point and shoot cameras is phenomenal now. I've got a Nikon D-50 and just bought my wife a Coolpix S610. Her photography skills are modest (even by her own admission) but she can get some good shots with it and with a little editing, it's nothing short of remarkable.

Greybeard