much rather prefer working alone, able to concentrate completely on my process of learning, exploring, and redefining what I love about a certain location, instead of having to time everything I do around whether someone else is in my spot, or in my shot. I can count on one hand the people I know I can photograph with that don't feel the need to constantly walk the same paths, keep up conversation, or need to compete for "the" shot of the day. Have I done group walks? Yes. Did I get great photos? Yes. But the cons outweighed the pros after a while, and if you're far enough along that you no longer need a life line, be careful that for the sake of being one of the group, you don't get held back. I've seen it happen. Lastly, make decisions for yourself. I'm all in favor of continued learning, reading the latest photography books, following the blogs of the pros... but as you do all that decide why something does or doesn't work for you, and avoid the bandwagon mentality. Test things for yourself. Stand up for your creative vision. We're discovering as digital photography evolves that the die hard rules of photography, and processing, and use of gear are all changing too. Labs print jpegs way better than they used to, Raw isn't always necessary, sensor size/quality is still more important than mega pixels, and not everything has to be neon-like HDR or special effects to be fabulous