I am somewhat new to using bryce and I just want to know if I am doing anything anyone likes.

Nice start. One tip I didn't find out until I started hanging out here.. When you create a piece of land.. go into the editor and bump up the size of the grid. This will result in smoother angles and a much more detailed landmass. Steps: Create the landmass.. then click on EDIT at the top. Once on the edit page, click on the last Icon at the top (right side). This will take you into the editor. On the right you'll see a B&W top-down image of the land. Just to the left of that, near the bottom, you'll find GRID. Click on that to increase the size of the grid. Notes: This tip is for Bryce 4.x Also.. memory.. this will increase Bryces already large memory footprint. So .. if you're running with 32 megs.. this will really chug your system. Another thing I've been playing around with (also see the thread "Size does matter).. is the textures. If you create something very 'large', then place the texture on it, then shrink it back down to the size you wanted.. it seems to make the texture much more realistic. :) Welcome to Bryce & Renderosity.. you're on the right track :)