Shutter Speeds, Apertures, RAW Images - OH MY!

Here's my favorite picture I've taken with my camera this week. It just feels so warm and sweet!!!! Thought I would start with the good before I start to complain - LOL!! This was taken on automatic and there was no photo correction done on it at all.

When I got this camera, I knew that it was going to have a learning curve, but I naively thought, "I've used a 35mm camera before, how hard can it be to get back into the swing?" Well, I'm telling you, this old brain has decided LONG ago to dump everything from it's core ANYTHING it hadn't used in 6 months or more because the information is just no longer THERE in my brain. I have to start from scratch like I've NEVER used a camera before!

Any picture that means the world to me (like special holiday stuff with family members that I can't retake) get auto for now. I practice every day with throw away shots and I am hopeful that one day I'll walk into a holiday with my camera on manual and know what to do! LOL!!!

THe other issue I'm running into is that the pictures on manual look so clear in the viewfinder, but when you blow them up to 100% you see the blurries come in only after uploading them to the computer. I have a problem with focus anyway, so it's really disheartening to see it so beautiful in the viewfinder and find it's blurry when you get it home! WAHHH

I'll upload some pix I've been working on a little later tonight!