Practicing with the Mode Dial

OK, for my practice over the weekend, I focused on the Mode Dial on my camera.

This thing:

There are several modes on this dial that I thought I knew how to use (the ones that have icons or pictures to explain what their for.)   BUT I decided to read a little more about them over the weekend.

Here is a little closer look at those icons:

(yes, it's a blurry picture - it was taken with my cell phone.  Give me a break!)

Here's what I already knew:

* The icon that looks like a person's head is used for portraits (close up, people pictures.)

* The one that looks like a mountain and a cloud is for taking landscape pictures.

* The one that has a picture of a flower is perfect for macro shots (taking pictures of flowers, or other things close up.)

* The picture of the runner is the fast shutter speed option.  Use this when you are shooting things that are moving and you want to get a still shot without blurring (sports action, moving cars, little girls jumping into piles of leaves, etc.)

* The icon that has a person with a star above their head is for night-time photos.  USE A TRIPOD for these because of the slow shutter speed.

* The lightening strike with a slash through it is to turn off the flash.  It was the first button I was so happy to see when I got this camera!  I never could get the stupid auto flash to turn off on my previous camera.  Great for pictures of things that are glowing  in the dark - like this:

PS - the green square is the "auto" mode.  This is what you use to let the camera do ALL the thinking for you.  It was what I first used when I got the camera and I was SO disappointed in the pictures.  They weren't any different than my previous point and shoot.  It is important to learn to use the different modes if you want to improve your picture taking abilities.

I will talk about the other options on the Dial (the letters up there) next week, but I want to go through these first.

SO - Tomorrow's Practice pictures:  Portrait Mode

Have a great day everyone!!  :)