Auto Focus and Camera settings

Now this is where my first generation D SLR frustrates me sometimes. With my new 40D on backorder, the ones that get away are maddening! I may have had my camera in the wrong mode but I thought not. UPDATE-Kevin helped me with an explanation of metering settings-I had it in "center weighted averaging" metering mode. This affects auto focusing. Anyway look at the sequence-the first shot is in focus, as I follow the cat and keep shooting the camera kept the first focus setting despite auto focus. Imagine this happening to you at a wedding job! Next I will try to duplicate this in "partial" and "evaluative" metering modes. On a Canon, these are displayed as an icon a bit like the CBS logo (Evaluative) two part circles (partial) or blank (CWA). Good thing pepper likes to run back and forth!
BTW we call these snapdragons her "snackdragons". She chews away on them until we get her to the kitty grass.

White Balance

This shot was with no flash, and the white balance set to auto. Its right on the money! Interesting when you compare this result with setting the camera to cloudy as shown below.

Flash tricks

More on flash skills today. I went out on a very gray day to take some shots of my cat Pepper. My pal Kevin who posts here from time to time gave me samples gels. Thin sheets of transparent plastic in every color. I use orange to warm up the blue cast caused by my white balance on an overcast day.

The next shot is without that gel but still with the flash. In fact I used the flash diffuser to get her to stick around. Just to show you why this sort of trick is helpful, take a look at just how badly my 30D "adjusted" for overcast conditions without the flash. I reset the white balance for cloudy instead of automatic. Yuck!