Learning to take better photos (cute baby pics inside)

I think I briefly mentioned this before, but my wonderful hubby got me an awesome digital SLR camera for Christmas. Check out this baby:

 (cue hallelujah music)

I LOVE it! But I realized - it's been SO long since I used a complex camera like this (we used to use similar, non-digital versions of these for yearbook & newspaper in high school...yep, I was in both - big dork, huh?!) that I have no clue about the in's & out's of this thing. And I'd hate to have my husband spend sooooo much money on this & let it go to waste by shooting in auto mode all the time. Although don't get me wrong, this thing takes AWESOME pics even in the auto modes. See exhibits A-C:

<3

I guess you can see who my favorite subject is? Hehehe. She's so cute. Okay, okay..back on track. :)

So what I'm getting at is, one of my goals for this year is to learn how to really take great photos with my new lover camera. So I asked some of my online mama friends what they did to learn how to really get the best use out of their SLR cameras & a several of them said they signed up for classes, which I'd love to do at some point, but is not an option right now because of time/schedule constraints. A couple of them sent me links to online courses & photographers blogs that have tips for moms, which is more up my alley right now. After looking over everything, I decided to go with this 12 weeks to better photography course offered by two peas in a bucket. And the best part about this course - it's free! My favorite price. :) And I'm starting now. The plan is to post an update every weekend with my progress each week & recap what I learned/post some photos that I'll take using my newly acquired photo skills!

So follow along & maybe even take the course with me if you want to learn how to take better photos too. I'm excited...learning new stuff is always fun for me. I like a challenge. 'Till next time!