These are my two most favorite pictures, so far. I love the focus. I love the light. I like how the top one has a little more color (there was a little more light). I like how the lower one has such a blurred background (it was a little farther back). I love that I took them. I love that I am so easily impressed with myself. 🙂

I like this one, too. But these are the moments when I wish that I had a tripod. Do you like how I just purchased this camera and already I think I need a tripod? Because it was darker, the aperture was large and the shutter speed was slow, allowing enough light to enter…meaning that I had to hold very, very still. However, I do like the blurring in the background. The little points of light are where the sky was still showing through the tree.

This is what a picture looks like when you have the white balance set for indoor lighting, but you are not indoors.

And this is what the picture should have looked like. This happens to be the view from my backyard. Not bad. The house you are seeing there (the one towards the right, and yes it looks like two, but it’s one) belongs to my bishop. It’s quite amazing. He’s a neurosurgeon…and evidently, a pretty good one. What I missed in this shot is that, since I was not going for an off angle, I should have made sure that the house (as a point of reference) was level, which it is not.

This one has less to do with photography and more to do with the fact that this was my favorite cupcake from class Wednesday night. I love orange. I’ve decided it’s my new second favorite color (after green…maybe third, after green and purple).

And here is a series…indoor with flash. Way too much light.

Indoor without flash…too yellow.

Indoor with the flash and a smaller aperture. Still too much light, but getting better.

Indoor, all the lights on, no flash. Too yellow, but I do like the focus. I was attempting to get the center focused and the edges soft.

And here’s where I finally got it…at least got it for being a total amateur. Indoor, lights on, no flash, adjusted white balance.

I am absolutely loving discovering the world through the lens of a camera. I just look at things differently. And I am so excited for my first photography class (I’m signed up for one in May) so that start to actually know how to adjust my settings rather than the trial by error method. Once again, I have to put a shout out to KP for inspiring me (even if she didn’t know she was).