Master Your Camera ? ?

I really should have done this four years ago when I first got this camera, but the features are so user friendly, and the manual is so boring, and....

Anyhow - I use what is referred to as a 'bridge camera'. It's a Fujifilm Finepix S8100, a model which has since been discontinued. Bridge (or super zoom) cameras look and feel like DSLR cameras, but the zoom lens is built in, which means the sensor is sealed and will never get dust or dirt on it. It has been convenient for me not to have to bring along extra lenses. This 10 megapixel camera has an 18x optical zoom, so I can take everything from wide angle landscape photos to extreme telephoto close-ups of insects, because the super macro zoom allows me to be as close as 1 cm to my subject. (Note from sad experience: not a good idea when the subject is a bee.)

The settings are similar to what you'd find on a DSLR - I can set it to Manual, meaning I choose the shutter speed and aperture. I try to use this whenever possible, because I figured I'd learn more about photography this way. I have taken some pretty good pictures, but I rely on the little moving lines at the bottom to tell me when I am where I should be for correct exposure. This means I don't really understand the whys and wherefores of what I'm doing - something I hope I will figure out in this class! There is also a totally automatic setting which makes the camera work like a point and shoot, for when there's no time to fuss around. I also have the option of setting the shutter speed and letting the camera select the aperture, or setting the aperture and the camera will set the shutter speed. Why do I have this? I'd like to know how and when to use this. There are other settings that I don't use, like a portrait mode and a bracketing zoom which takes three photos at once, zooming in closer and closer. I'm not sure why I would want to do that.

I can change the ISO depending on light conditions, and adjust the white balance. I never mess with the white balance because I don't know anything about that and the camera will do it automatically. This camera also takes movies with sound but I have not done this.

I mostly take carefully composed pictures so I can take my time. I like to photograph flowers, trees, my cats, sea shells, and abstract graphic patterns like porch railings and radiators and things like that. I stink at photographing people because I am too slow - that's another thing I'd like to work on.