Sarah, this forum is a tough one and we get a LOT of trolling posts just like this-regardless of whether you are trolling on not.
It can be a rather harsh forum because the members have gotten rather sick and tired of the trolls among other things. Unfortunately a lot of the legitimate newbies look just like the trolls coming in here.
Let's cover just a few things...
Your name is not an introduction to you and about you. It's just a name. We know nothing about you and have no way of knowing you aren't one of the hundreds of trolls we see each week. People judge each other based on their own past experiences and with 95% of posts like yours we have a new troll.
Every day it seems we see a new "best buy" photographer who has gotten a new camera and Viola! They are a professional with a business and a website and EVERYthing! Yay! We really get tired of them and aren't exactly supportive of the attitude we get from them. There are pros here with anywhere from a few to 50 years of experience. It gets old. We will gladly help you get to professional level and even go forward in business if that's what you want, but you have to walk before you can run. The comment about learning to take professional photos stems from that. It's not constructive, but this looked like the typical trolling thread so, the reaction was a learned one... Pavlov's dog and all that psychology crap. You definitely need some serious work on the photography skills, but janine wouldn't have put it that way if she thought you were here for anything other than self promotion as your post proclaims.
You have the ball in your court now. We'll be glad to help you find the things you need to learn if you want to, or you can take off outta here. Just remember that this forum can be harsh (me included) and sometimes just plain mean (yep, me too) but overall we will help anyone who wants to give the time and effort to get help.
Your website images are needing you to start with the basics. THe first and biggest improvement any newbie can make is studying composition.
HERE is my favorite website link for composition. Especially to stop looking down on your children. Get to their level.
After that you need to learn to LOOK at the light you are shooting in. Most of your pictures of your kids show them in lovely spotted light through a tree giving them blow outs and shadows that are not flattering.
I think you need to calibrate your monitor. You have some GLOWING colors in many of those that I don't think you see.
After that you can start with the tutorials here for learning how to control your own exposure and how an image appears here:
Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials
I'll add that the key to great photography doesn't rest in the camera you possess, but rather your eyes. In school I shot with a loaned point and shoot and came back with great shots, one even made it as far as Nationals for PSA's youth photography contest. The words that changed how I shoot which I'll never forget...I was on a pier in Oceanside and a guy told me that in my sunset shot I should include some architecture so people know what area I'm in, which then brought me back to the rule of thirds which I never quit understood and had to re-learn. Now I shoot with the brackets on all the time. So my advise to you is, try including something interesting in the shot that tells a story, if there is something distracting or not related to the mood you want the image to project then just crop it.
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