Photography is a strange blend of the technical and the artistic. Compared to say, a pencil, there's a heck of a lot of technical stuff that you should learn to get the best from it. Sometimes, no matter what you try, the picture you envisage will elude you. Sometime it's luck that outweighs the technical and you get a happy accident. See the 'unexpected gems' thread in the forum.

Today I tried for a happy accident. With the camera at arms length and pointing directly at me, I shot some long exposueres while twisting the camera on it's lens axis and me on my toes. Expecting something swirly and interesting, eventually, I realised that all I was going to get was a lot of blurry pictures of me! Back to a 'reserve' idea. The wicker chairs in the bedroom. The idea was a wonderful black+white texture shot. But luck was on my side this time. A custom white balance had been set from a studio shot earlier, and the warm tones of the chair where just too good I had to keep it in full colour.

Oh and remember. Never confuse 'shallow depth of field' with plain old 'out of focus'.