Lightbulbs

Have you ever had something

perplex

and

utterly 

confound 

you?

 

You've thought and believed that everyone but

YOU understood something, or

"got it" ?

That's how I've felt about 

aperture

shutter speed

ISO

and a whole host of other Greek terms which taunted me
every single time I turned 

on the camera.

Things like this come easy to some, but not to me.

And so I played it safe.

Oh so safe.

Afraid to take the training wheels off, I kept it turned to

Auto.

Entirely too busy to either sign up for a course or really delve into my photography books,

I muddled through.

And dumb luck has permitted me to create some decent images,

but the opportunities are increasing....

Really fabulous, OMG type opportunities...

And with new opportunities, come expectations.

Both those I place on myself, and those of the people hiring me out, so to speak. 
Expectations that I (shock!) will actually know what I'm doing, and will be able
to produce professional results.
And if not quite professional, then certainly better than what I'm producing now.

and so...

with bated breath, last night I did something

so fearless, so brave, so completely heroic that

I simply can't contain myself anymore....

I took the training wheels off!!!

Armed with the incredible, every-photographer-must-have book

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson 

I experimented and played

and the funniest thing began to happen...

I saw these...

lots and LOTS of these!!!

Call it a eureka or light bulb moment, but I call it

wonderful.

Shooting in manual and aperture priority modes isn't quite as scary
as I anticipated after all!  :-)

And now some thank you's.

To the talented photographer and blogger who way back when 

recommended that I get this book,

I say "thank you".

To the absolute sweetest friend and mentor in the whole wide word,
I say "thank you".

And to each of you, for traveling with me on all my adventures,
I say a hearty "thank you"!

Shifting gears...

There's still time to enter my
Happy New Year Giveaway!

Click HERE to enter!

Happy Wednesday!

ps...

I've thanked people in this post

who genuinely and selflessly lent a hand...

never expecting credit or thanks, 

and certainly not the sorts of people

to hold a grudge if thanks were never offered.

I have sadly encountered the latter type of person

in my travels, and I'd like to thank them too....

for helping me to grow a thicker skin,

and to learn who you can and cannot trust.