Hello, newbie here, french/italian bread attempt ... :)

Hello,

I am a total newbie.  I got started into bread-making for wanting of a good bread to go with my weekly crockpot and other feasts.  I began with a bread machine, from which I made some edible bread, but was not ideal.  I have been reading the Hamelman book, "Bread", and it was an eye opening experience.  My shaping and scoring leaves a lot to be desired, and I screwed up this batch, but here is my recent attempt at something resembling a baguette.  

I followed the directions on 'Baguettes with Poolish', but for me I used autolyse and I had to add a little bit of extra water to the autolyse mix.

I cooked this on a baking stone in my home oven at 450 for appx 35 mins.  I did the poor-man's steam method (dumping water into the oven).   I have an oven steamer but I have not used it yet.

Not the best, but I am learning...