practice, practice, practice

I'm having fun practicing, so that's a good thing. I'm not having fun with shots that do not turn out the way that I expect them to. The lowest F-stop setting on my camera is 2.8. I would expect to get a little background blur with that, but in most pictures, it isn't as much as I hoped for. Let's see... little background blur... would that mean a greater depth of field? Or lower depth of field? Whichever it is, I know what I want, but I'm not always getting it. And sometimes I'm getting a little blur that I don't expect. Where is it coming from?

I'm sharing a few pictures that I took this evening. Some are a little blurry, some are darker than I wanted. But, I enjoy knowing that I controlled the technical aspects of the shots.

This is my favorite. It's a sedum that was my grandmother's.

I had to get in the grass for this mushroom.

I like how the sedum leaves are framing the clover in the middle.

At {p}'s request... picture of his snapdragons. Bless his heart. He said, "You're starting to get good at taking pictures!"

I like how the light coming through the leaves looks almost symmetrical. This was taken standing under a sunflower.

{s} trying a tomato in the garden

Horrible background, but he wasn't interested in moving.

I like the vibrant colors here.

Too dark, but I stuck it in here anyway.