Playing with the camera

I've been trying to play with our camera more and more since taking our photographer Ali's class on how to take better pictures of your kids.  It's harder than I thought it would be because I'm shooting in manual and Esme moves pretty fast.  So as soon as I get the light and focus done (not to mention the white balance and a gazillion other things) she's gone.

I feel like I'm slowly getting better.  Here are a few of my practice pictures.