Shutter speed...

A while back, my father bought me a set of DVDs from National Geographic on photography, hoping to encourage my interest. Because I was pretty sure I understood the basics of manual mode on my camera, they languished on the shelf, another of those things I'll get around to eventually. I was sure there was some good information for someone who is clearly not much trained in photography, but figured the front end of the course would be loaded with stuff too basic for me. Eventually, I did pop the first disc into the player and watch. I'm very glad I did. A lot of the information is basic, but host and photographer Joel Sartore does a good job of getting you to think about what you want your fotos to communicate (fair warning, tho: he makes constant dad jokes; I find them charming, but YMMV).

Anyway, I watched the lesson on shutter speed, thinking I wouldn't get much out of it. I've always read that you should shoot in either manual or aperture priority mode and focus on depth of field. In this lesson, though, Sartore showed examples of how a fast or a slow shutter speed can affect the type of image you take, and how you can use that to create more artistic images. The assignment at the end was to take a foto at different shutter speeds. Below are examples of the same thing at different speeds. Not particularly artful or anything, these are just quick snaps of a gutter in my backyard. Still, it's neat to see the difference shutter speed makes.

1/500th of a second...you can see individual droplets of water,
kind of frozen in midair.

1/20th of a second...the water looks much more like a stream,
and you get a better sense of how it's moving.