No new thoughts

The way to a great picture...

Hmmm... It is based in knowing how to work your camera WELL, comfortable with yourself and willingness to make other comfortable (knowing what it feels like to be them), PRACTICE and for me I also like to scope out where I'm going to shoot before it comes time.  I want to know the lay of the land well before I get there.  I want to know what areas I want to use, have ideas of the shots that I want (but make sure you are willing to go with the flow... things don't work out how you plan and more often then not if they did it wouldn't be as good ;P) but take my word for it: Jasmine Star actually posted about something similar yesterday.

"Correct exposure"

I have been reading a lot of books on photography.  The latest of which is about "correct exposure".  It went over making sure you take into account the ISO (essentially film quality), F/stop (essentially the apparent size), and the shutter speed (essentially what it sounds like).  A lot of what he said I already knew some of I didn't but it had more to do with shooting with film (the things I didn't know that is).  All the same I took it all to heart and it basically came down to I need to spend more time with my camera.  

Point of all the rambling: the best way to get to know your camera is to spend time with it just like a person.

Picture one is F/8, ISO 100, and  shutter speed of 300 (on a Nikon D300)

Same "exposure" but now it is a F/1.4, ISO 100, Shutter speed of 1000

(The huge difference if focus.  The first being a broad focus and the second being a very small focus.)