good morning monday, hello manual!

Good morning, Monday! Up late last night, I was voraciously reading my photo 101 book (thank you, something that finally makes sense to me!), and I realized a really, really, stupid thing. Yes, it was me. In preparation for my online class in March, I have been doing everything I can to understand as much as possible about my camera and taking photos so I know at least a tiny fraction of the basics. I've been playing around with AV and P modes, understanding that the camera chooses some of the settings for you, depending on which mode you are in.

I have a couple of different lenses (a 60mm macro which I haven't used lately), a 50mm, and a 17-85mm. I have a Canon 20D and we've had it probably since it first came out, so quite some time. I've always loved photography and when I had my babies, a camera may as well have been permanently glued in my hands. That being said, I can only dream one day of taking photos half as great as some of the photographers out there whose blogs I visit much more than I care to mention :).

Yes, I found a stupid thing alright, stupid me (and I say this lightly as I really do love me ;) ) figured out that there wasn't anything wrong with my lenses in manual, it's a little thing called a focus ring. I completely understand why cameras come with the little green square, aka idiot mode. Mind you, my venture this morning is far from the perfect exposure (the third one is super noisy, my ISO was way too high), I was only adjusting within my view finder. My next quest is to get much more acquainted with my camera and actually memorize my f-stops and shutters, so as not to randomly pick numbers but to actually make real adjustments. For now, here was my quick attempt before work while Anna was eating pancakes and watching Backyardigans. Hello, manual. It's nice to meet you!

{In case you are wondering: I paid for the photo 101 book, and the online photography class, but was not paid to mention them}