Day 11's assignment - Shooting Manually and Day 14

As I have written about in my last 4 posts I am late to the party but doing Darcy's 31 Days to a Better Photo series.  Yesterday I talked about the assignments that I have not yet done, well today I was able to get outside for a brief stint to do Day 11's assignment and that is to shoot manually.  It was good to turn off auto mode and try to get some acceptable photos shooting manually.  I use to shoot in manual mode a lot with my ZLR but it was tons easier than with the SLR.  I took several photos trying to change aperture and then making the appropriate adjustment with shutter speed or vice-versa.  It felt good to finally have some stuff click. I have a long way to go but I would highly recommend Darcy's series to anyone who wants to feel more comfortable with their picture taking.  Here is my favorite of my manual shots today.

 I took this in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.  This is SOOC with a small crop and an addition of my copyright. 

Day 14 - Is a reading assignment about histograms which I read this morning.