Today, I finally worked out how to use the manual functions on my Canon 400D. It’s a bit fiddly, but I’ve found if you set the aperture and then fiddle with the shutter speed only, it works quite well.
I went for a wander in the field and woods behind the flat, during the lovely “golden hour” light. Stalked a grasshopper for a while, played with the backlighting on the fluffy grasses, then snapped a collection of snails. A great way to spend half an hour or so.
All these shots are straight off the camera, only cropped a couple. This is a first for me, I usually tweak my photos in Lightroom quite a lot. I found slightly underexposing brought out the colours and contrast a lot more, especially for subjects against a dark background, will have to remember that.