Thanks, Rusty, I am slowing beginning to understand this stuff.

Rusty's explanation is great. Best advice is go out and practice.

I've been looking and looking for a website that had a great explanation - couldn't find the one I wanted. But, while searching, came across two that are not bad.

Take a look at these to help get comfortable with the relationship of The Triad: shutter speed, lens opening and ISO (sensor sensitivity):

http://www.photosecrets.com/tips.p09.html

http://www.photoimagenews.com/plumbing.htm

I think the second one is especially good - the website I was looking for also used the analogy of filling a bucket with water from a hose

Rusty

Wow, lots of activity on this post! Here is something I might add for beach shots. Invest in a Polorizing filter. It removes a lot of the glare on the sand and water and also reduces the oveall brightness. Be sure that the filter is set correctly for each shot. The little dot or arrow must point toward the sun, so as you change directions, rotate the filter. If you use a TTL, you can see the effect directly through the view finder.
Joe

This has been a busy thread! I forgot all about it (shame on me). I'm back from my vacation and things didn't go as planned. I should have known better traveling with a 2 1/2 year old and a 10 month old. I got some ok beach shots. Unfortunatley didn't get to follow any of the great advice here. My kids weren't cooperating so I used P mode for the family shots when someone else was taking them. I did something else stupid. I left the flash open by mistake so all of my pictures got blown out. Luckily I had the camera set to RAW and jpg so I was able to save them for the most part.
I have a problem with blurry shots. I think it's mostly because I've been playing around with all the settings. I've been shooting in TV and AV and I can't remember which one is good for what. I thought TV was good for moving subjects and AV good for still. Am i completely off?
I'll post some pictures later. Right now, motherly duty calls

TV is good for action, but you have to set the shutter speed high enough to freeze the action.

TV is good for action, but you have to set the shutter speed high enough to freeze the action.

i was playing with this yesterday while it was raining. Think I got it all figured out. At least for now

Glad to help.

Hi hgsf...etc,
When you can steal time from motherly duties (you have your priorities right), You should take a look at this thread. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2485&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Not so much what's posted in that thread, but grab that address in Kimi's first paragraph. You can go to that website and download those 12 lessons. They are very well written and very easy to follow. Put them aside and, as you have time, work on them one at a time. Doesn't really matter if you do them in a week or if it takes until you little one is walking.

Rusty