Oh, this was really exciting. As I was trying to pry ice and snow off my driveway, I heard the most wonderful sound — that honk, honk, honk of several flocks of geese talking to each other on their way over my house. I can just imagine them saying, “HONK! Get yer ass back INTO formation!” or “HONK! HONK! Can ya believe that Greta?! She NEVER takes her place up front; she’s SUCH a drag!”

After about four formations flew over the house, there went the sag wagon, I guess; one lone goose turned back north, honking, as though trying to hurry along the stragglers. Except, I saw no stragglers. I put the camera away and resumed my battle with Mother Nature’s driveway droppings.

Not long after, I hear another round of honking and here comes another flock over a neighbor’s house. So, apparently that lone goose, heading back north, knew more than I about the state of his “village.”

Anyway, this is my first attempt at using a newly learned setting on my camera; shutter priority. I can set the shutter to open and close very quickly and therefore suspend action without blur. Oh, this is going to be fun. Of course, this effort wasn’t perfect, but I had very little time to refer to the tutorial, or think a lot about what I needed to set. One thing I forgot to do was return the exposure compensation back to zero, so the original was very dark. And, although I’m shooting in RAW (not IN the raw), I can’t take advantage of that yet as I don’t have Photoshop CS5, which includes the RAW filter for my camera.

What a nice way to start this day and end 2010.

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The tutorial from which I’ve learned so much is called, Foundations of Photography: Exposure, by Ben Long. It can be found on lynda.com (@lyndadotcom). Lynda.com is a pay subscription (to get all the tutorials), but the money I’ve spent over the years, has more than paid for itself in my ability to learn how to use something quickly, or familiarize myself with something I don’t use often. I did this whole tutorial, but will go back, rewatch, and do the exercises Ben Long suggests. I wanted to watch it all at once, to first get an overall view of what I should know (and would learn in that tutorial); what I can expect my camera might do; and the practical application of all that information. That’s half the battle (for me) in unleashing my curiosity.

Anyway, I can’t wait to have further opportunities to try out ALL the theory touched on in that tutorial. This IS going to be fun.