Wolf-
Thanks for the compliments and critique. I actually know all about the rule of thirds- I took a comprehensive course from New York Institute of Photography. And I can find room for improvement in most of those photos that I posted. (Hey, at least I know my weaknesses!) The pictures of the sunsets, though, were all taken before I had any interest in photography. And like I told you I focus on portraiture. (I dont know if you saw the other album in my gallery)
As for the tripod, some of those night pictures have exposures of 1 second, and I didnt use a tripod there either- I took a couple of those from a shaky boat. I know they wouldve been much better with a tripod, I just have too much busha to shlepp it around. Its also pretty heavy- I have the Manfrotto-Bogen 190XB with the 488RC2 ballhead.