Fun with Aperture

I have been loving the 31 Days to a Better Photo series I've been working my way through.  I can now officially announce that I can use my camera in MANUAL mode!!  Wahoo!  I used to do this all the time in high school but I had forgotten how.

Now that I know what all the adjustments mean and do (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) I can balance them out to get the effect I want.  I haven't gone crazy and it still takes me quite a while to adjust the settings because I have to talk my way through what everything means, and what needs to be adjusted, but I'm on my way to being able to use the manual settings more regularly!

Here are a couple photos I took using the highest and lowest aperture adjustments my lens could do.

 Higher aperture creates smaller depth of field.  Your subject is in focus but anything in front or behind it is blurry, making your subject stand out.

Lower aperture means a larger depth of field making more of the photo in focus.

I am using pretty basic subjects for my learning photos because it is pretty frustrating trying to shoot a photo of a toddler while taking a minute to adjust things, and then by the time I get all adjusted she's halfway down the hall.  

I am excited to use my camera more and to have quality photos of my little one - and have fun while doing it!!