A initially learned photography as a kid shooting black & white then developing the photos in a dark room, that was a magical time and sparked my interest in photography. As I got older I dabbled in digital photography but wasn't until my kids were born that i really started to get an active interest back in it all.
Deviantart there are alot of useful scripts, brushes, etc. to add to Gimp. Alot of photoshop stuff can be added to gimp.