Hello! Newbie Student Here

[Morgan Willows]

Hi. I'm Morgan, I've taken exactly one photography class and mostly what I learned is how much of a noob I really am. My dad got me into photography when I was younger and taught me a bit but, I've found, not even close to enough. I may get a chance to take more classes later but at the moment I can't afford it, so I'm pottering around on my own for now and dropping in here hoping to learn more from people who've been doing this longer than I have.
I'm working with a Nikon D3000 and only have the 18-55 kit lens to work with and a couple of Vivitar filters (UV, FLD, CPL, and a couple of macros of varying magnification, and I really don't know much about how to use them yet). Most of my practice since finishing the class has been taking shots of the custom costume work one of my friends does. I have them up on my flickr and I think they're halfway decent.
I really enjoy doing it and I want to get into event photography as well. I took a stab at event work by tagging along with my friend to Comic Con, which mostly taught me that 1) my camera will not stay focused if I'm doing a lot of walking between shots, and 2) contrary to what my teacher constantly insisted, shooting on Auto is fine if the location you're at has lighting that changes drastically literally every three feet and doesn't offer much opportunity to adjust your settings. I also learned, while trying to take shots of the zombie walk at the con, that my on-board flash is not fast enough or bright enough to allow for high action night shots.
Hopefully I can learn what I need to fix that and there's probably loads of other stuff that I don't even know I don't know. I'm hoping I can pick some of that up from people here. I've got a long way to go but I think it'll be fun.

 

[Designer]

..my camera will not stay focused if I'm doing a lot of walking between shots..

Welcome!

I don't know why you would expect your camera to remain focused. After all, each subject is going to be at a different distance from your camera.

 

[Morgan Willows]

Well part of the problem is that I made the mistake of doing this right after I got new glasses and hadn't fully adjusted to them yet, so even shots that looked in focus at the time ended up not being focused when I looked at them full size. Also, stupidly, I assumed the machine would stay adjusted until I fiddled with it again because I didn't think walking was enough to move the lens out of focus, so for subjects I was the same distance from, give or take a few inches, I didn't double check. Dumb newbie mistakes, basically. I've only been at this for about six months, hehe.

 

[Designer]

Oh, I think I understand. You focus manually and you want your lens to not move while walking. Try using a rubber band that is wide enough to span the juncture between the parts of your lens that turn as you focus. Of course, doing that will mean that you might have to push the rubber band down so you can adjust the focus.

 

[Morgan Willows]

Oh cool, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks.