References picture.

I'm far from an expert as well but it's very usable. There's very little lighting information which is the main thing.

A few minutes in photoshop can get something usable I guess:

[Blocked Image: http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/erratic101/gravel01.jpg]

Not much I could say to improve the reference.

i can help you making better photos. just step back a bit so you can see a larger part of the surface and if its a floor you should consider entering a roof and shooting a photo from up there (with zoom if neccessary). its also always good to go taking texture ref fotos on an overcast day with very diffuse lighting so you dont get too much sunlight and shadows in your textures. when fotographing windows make sure you dont reflect yourself and ofcourse when you take photos of something with vertical and/or horizontal lines its recommended to take the photo perfectly parallel to those lines. using tripods will make your textures better aswell. also never ever use flashlight.

thats it have fun.

to check out excellent photosources for textures go here: http://www.cgtextures.com

if you can match his quality then you can consider yourself good at what you do

I think it's abit unsharp. Might be the focus? So make sure you are as focuses as possible. Aswell as not being so close to the ground as Satan said. A chair will do it for "plain" textures I think.

Quote from Sa74n

to check out excellent photosources for textures go here: http://www.cgtextures.com

Wow, great resource, thanks.

Yeah...that site's got alot of what I was looking for.