Practice, practice, practice!
I recently joined Lynda.com - because I forgot to cancel my membership before the one month trial was up. I have no regrets though, as I've discovered a great series of courses taught by photographer Ben Long. I'm currently working on the Exposure course and when I took the dogs for a walk yesterday I practiced my aperture and shutter prority modes using my new Nikon 50mm 1.8 FX lens. It was a lot of fun and I discovered I'd really learned a lot. And I really need to practice more. Luckily practice is fun! Here's a few of the shots that I like.