Photo class

My photography class wasn't what I thought. It said we would learn how to run our SLR cameras.  Well apparently it's more like and art class from a professional photographer, and he kept talking about our clients. I was like Huh?  What clients!  I'm not really planning on being professional here. I just want to learn how to set my timer, and maybe turn the flash on and off.  We didn't learn any of that. I decided I would try and get the most I could from not knowing anything about photography. So this is what I learned.  Aperture, and shutter speed.  

Subject: Leighty bug ( with trimsomy 21)

Here's a picture with camera settings...

and here's the one I did with what I learned....

Can you see how much brighter the light is. Well I guess I'm going back even if I am really intimidated, and I might just sign up for his class on lighting.  I still don't want to be a professional, but it might be nice to have pictures that look decent.

-JS