Honing My Photography Skills

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I own a Canon Rebel digital SLR camera but don't know how to use it in manual mode.  Back in college, many years ago, I took a photography class and learned how to manually work a film SLR camera.  Yet it's been so many years since that class and I don't remember how to manually work a SLR camera anymore.  At the very least, I'm still familiar with certain photography terminology (e.g. ISO, aperture, shutter speed) and what those terms individually mean.

Taken with a fast shutter speed, you can see how the water's "frozen" in action.  I wanted to advance from this style.

I've been slowly trying to teach myself to move away from the automatic mode and ease into manual mode.  There's so much to learn, and it doesn't help that there are so many many options that come with a digital camera (unlike a film camera).  I want to not only better my photography skills, but I want to actually utilize my camera and lenses to all of the possibilities that there may be.  Slowly but surely, I hope to teach myself again.  For some unknown reason, it's not sticking in my head, but I'll force it in somehow.

With a slower shutter speed, the water looks smooth and silky...just what I wanted!

Today, I was playing with the shutter speed on my camera.  My ultimate goal today was to photograph moving water so that it looked wonderfully smooth and frothy.  It sucked that I forgot my tripod, but I worked with what I had and my environment.  I only ended up with three decent pictures, despite taking many many many bad ones.  Yet, I'm quite happy.  I actually was able to capture the running water in a way that wasn't half bad.  Now, I just need to find a big waterfall and continue practicing.

Do you like photography?  Are you interested in expanding your photography skills?