New amiture photographer needs help.

LeilaniK wrote:

Hello,

Hello, The Famous Wilba here.

You already have some good answers but not a lot of technical explanations for the questions you asked, so let's have a go...

So far I have been getting some beautiful shots during the daylight hours.

That makes sense, 'cos in daylight there is enough light that the camera can make easy decisions that give good results. We'd like to see your beautiful shots as well.

I don't quite understand why my camera didn't want to take photos, but it just made flashes and lens adjustments and then nothing.

In the auto (green box) mode, the camera will use the flash if it thinks it needs to, including to illuminate the subject to be able to focus on it - the flashes you saw. But the subject was too far away so the camera wasn't able to focus. You could focus manually to avoid that.

When it did take a photo, below is what I got.

There's not a lot of light so the camera had to open the shutter for 2.5 seconds to get enough to make an image. You can't hold a camera for that long and get a steady image. You could get that shot if you mounted the camera on a tripod, or put it on something solid and used the self-timer.

I tried to take a picture of the moon which was behind me, and even those didn't come out well.

It's a very difficult scene, with a small bright subject surrounded by darkness. I'd advise coming back to this one when you have a better grasp of the fundamentals.

Do I need a different lens?

No, your lens is fine.

Can anyone suggest what I can change to get pictures of this natural wonder? Please help.

I would use a tripod and manual mode and manual focus for shots like that, but just telling you that won't mean you get the shot tonight. I really think the best thing you can do is sign up for a class with a good teacher (rather than with a good photographer, if you know what I mean).

The answers to all the how-do-I-do-that questions you asked as you were reading this (manual focus? self-timer? manual mode?), are in the instruction manual for your camera, but they are not very accessible to a beginner.