Aperture and Shutter Speed!

So, I've been trying to take semi-alright pictures for a long time.  Nick got a new camera for his birthday this February and I have been trying to figure out how it works ever since.  SO...today I learned something that I probably should have learned before: How to use aperture! 

I've been looking at photography blogs, tutorials, etc...and finally learned this:

If you want a very shallow depth of field (background blurry), you’d choose a very large aperture opening, which would be a very low number. (f2.8)

If you want a very large depth of field (everything in focus), you’d choose a very small aperture opening, which would be a higher number. (like f22)

 Everything makes sense now!!! WOO!
I'll probably be posting more photography wisdom as I learn it... Anyways, I hope I've helped at least one person to realize what aperture is and how to use it.

Oh~ and I figured this out from this website: http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2008/05/what-the-heck-is-an-aperture-part-one/

Pioneer Woman has many tutorials on how to do things with your camera!

 OK- now that we have aperture figured out, on to shutter speed! 
this website has a handy dandy chart!  http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/advanced-techniques/shutter-speed-chart/
If you're too lazy to click on the link, this is essentially what the page says: 

If a slow shutter speed is selected, movement is captured. Using a fast shutter speed will freeze the action.
Here are suggested shutter speeds for photographing a variety of subjects.

SUGGESTED SHUTTER SPEEDS
TO FREEZE ACTION*	TO CAPTURE MOTION**
Children – 1/250 – 1/1000 seconds	Amusement park rides: +/- one second
Moving water/waterfalls: 1/1000 seconds or more	Moving water/waterfalls: 4 or more seconds
Sporting event: 1/500 – 1/2000 seconds	Fireworks: 1/2 – 4 seconds
Birds in flight: 1/1000th a second and above	Moving cars at night: 8-10 seconds
	Night photography – one or more seconds

P.S. I LOVE THIS BLOG!!! http://thatwifeblog.com/photography/

Love this quote!

Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after” is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably never was nor ever could be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships?
But, of course, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense–love as distinct from “being in love”–is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be “in love” with someone else.
“Being in love” first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise.
It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.
—C.S. Lewis