Psssst...

I have a confession to make. Ready? I use the AUTO setting on my SLR camera 90% of the time, 5% of the time I have it set on one of those built-in presets, the other 5% is me just wingin' it. I need to buy a book for Dummies. Most of the time the AUTO setting works just find, but some how I still feel like I'm shorting myself and my images.

I am not a photographer. I just like to take photographs. I'm more on the Ansel Adams (except with color) side of the scale. I enjoy natural light and leaves and flowers and bugs.

This is my favorite. EVER. I took this photo back in 2005 with a 4 mega-pixel Kodak CX7430 Point & Shoot camera. I didn't know a single thing about taking photos except to aim the camera and push the button. I think I got seriously lucky. And the fact that apparently this little fellow was really excited about the nectar in that lilac tree didn't hurt either!

I thought if I could take a photo that totally awesome with a 4 mega-pixel camera... IMAGINE what I could do with one that had twice the mega-pixels! So I bought another Kodak. A C875! It had all the bells and whistles, different priority modes (PASM), video, blah, blah, blah. It was also around this time that I figured out that you should really never ever, ever, ever use digital zoom. It's just bad juju man. On that tiny little LCD screen your image will look perfect. On a normal screen or on paper... not so much. But I did get loads and loads of photos with this camera that I thought were da bomb y'all.

Not to mention the years of family photos. The only real issue I had with this camera was what I call the "washout" factor. If I was trying to take a photo in a low-light situation, you were going to show up in the image looking like Casper's long lost sister or brother. Everyone always came out looking 4 shades whiter than what they actually were.

I still have a point and shoot camera, but thanks to the knowledge of a friend, I bought a Canon. Love it. Small, compact, literally fits in my back pocket, and doesn't cause excessive "washout" factors when taking photos indoors!

I don't know how I got so carried away with this... All I really wanted to do was show you these photos I took yesterday NOT using the AUTO setting! Oooo.... and doing some fine tweaking, like those darn rounded corners.