One thing that I have noticed is that may new photographers just shoot in Automatic Mode, or Shutter Priority, or Aperture Priority.

What are you missing if you do this? Total control of what you want your image to look like.

Let's say you are heading out to photograph a waterfall on an overcast day. Your normal mode if operation may be just to set your camera to Auto and fire away. So you just have a picture of a waterfall. But did you capture the mood of the image?

With a pre thought in to what we want to capture, I'm in a mellow mood and want to slow the flow of the water so it's soft and fluffy as it cascades down towards me in the pool of water. What do I need to do? Change your camera settings to Manual, Select a slow shutter speed, then look through your viewfinder and match the aperture to the grid within the viewfinder that will show you the relative correct exposure. (if you are equipped with a digital camera then this will make the trial and error a little more comfortable, if you are stuck with film you may need to pull out your light meter and adjust all of your settings here.*take notes on what your aperture and shutter speed are for each frame so you can compare after the film is developed)

Soon you will find that the more you play in Manual mode, the less you will like any auto mode.