Now the Trial and Error begins......

   Now that I have gotten brave enough to try manual, and I got better results than I was, I left the camera on M today, found some Gerbers blooming in my front yard, and changed the settings, looking for an effect, seeing how one setting affects another, the sun came in and out, how that light changed the effects....  a whole new universe seems to have opened up to me!   It is definitely not point and shoot, but rather, shoot-review-analyze-change a setting(s) and shoot again!  
   What a great world of photography we all swim in!