Thank for saying so LLL, but I think the creativity just comes by playing around with different things, a bit of lateral thinking so to speak.
Since posting the above examples I have added a few more pictures to give you some idea of what I mean, just take the basic idea, in this case a laser pen and expand it out a bit and see what you might come up with. All of them involve reducing the light entering the camera by using a ND filter and setting it up to get the longest exposure you can.
These are some beans that are a mottled black in colour and quite shiny, so a long exposure macro shot and a bit of artistic effects with a laser pen and they look to be electrified.
A similar effect with my finger nearly touching a battery, ouch that hurt!
In this one I decided to electrocute Sponge-Bob Square Pants
You can write messages too.
And finally, I used the idea of making the contacts of this old Intel processor chip look like they were too hot to handle as my entry into a photo competition.
There is nothing wrong with switching to Auto when things are happening a bit quickly for you to deal with it. I often do it especially taking wildlife pictures, better to have that shot than nothing at all. Try dividing your camera shoot time up a little bit by say shooting on auto when the kids are running around, but later on try for that more candid shot when you have more time to think it out beforehand. Maybe the mother is setting up the table with a cake and candles, so take a few minutes to look at the setting and compose the picture before the kids all pile in, or maybe look for the child engrossed with a toy and sitting quietly and take several shots.
) And now that you mention it all the photos he was presenting were water falls.........DUH! Learning all this photography "stuff" sure is fun!! (Be easier if I had a clue or half a brain!)
