An Evening by the Lake & Adventures in Manual

Sunday was quite possibly the perfect day, as far as weather is concerned. Warm, but not too hot, very low humidity, no wind, etc. Just the type of day you wish could last forever and the type you could stay out in all day long. So after church, naps, and dinner, we drove to the lake to take a stroll along the levee. And seems how it is a 5 minute drive from our house, why wouldn't we go?!
Of course, much of the time was spent stopping rather than strolling, to let Tyler pick up rocks and throw them in the lake. And it's funny how two years ago, I could hardly even say "Lake Pontchartrain", and now I have a 3 year old who says it. Although, he pronounces it more like "Lake Pawn Chun Train", but hey, that's pretty close (and probably better than the first time I pronounced it!).

And then, I had my very own "ah-ha!" moment. And it went something like this (with a little background first). Two years ago, when I bought my camera, I brought it home, put it in auto mode and started taking pictures. I liked the pictures just fine, but always wanted to learn more and achieve more dramatic shots, greater depth of field, etc. So, a year ago, I started my own study of exposure. I read books, played around a lot, read a lot of articles, and felt like I understood the concept of exposure (aperture + shutter speed + ISO) pretty well. I understood it, but was still pretty intimidated by choosing my own exposure. I felt pretty comfortable with choosing my own aperture, so I did, however put my camera in aperture priority mode at that point and it has not been taken out of that mode since. I kept reading and playing around and about a month ago, I turned that little dial on my camera to "M" and started taking pictures in complete manual mode. It has very much been a learning experience, but I've liked what I've been learning. So....this evening was when things really "clicked" in my mind. I had fun playing with the light we had that evening and by selecting my own aperture AND shutter speed, getting much different results. So, for instance, the photo up above was taken just seconds before this photo below. And the results differ just from changing up my exposure. Like I said, it was the complete "ah-ha" for me. I was kind of excited about it.
I have always loved silhouette sunset shots and was excited to finally have some of my own. So I just played around and adventured in manual all evening.

And I was intrigued by the fact that I could get the picture above and the picture below in a matter of seconds by selecting my own exposure instead of having the camera do it for me.
And now I have some of my favorite pictures to date, some of my cute boys that will be put in frames. And that, for me, makes a perfect evening! :)