macro monday...umm, i mean tuesday

I'd like to start by reminding you about the needs of Haiti. My missionary friends have been doing great things and have seen great things happen, but more help is still needed. There are two buttons over there on the left...see 'em? If you'd like to help...those are great places to go.
Now, I'd like to try something new here at the Clothesline...macro monday. Okay, I see that Monday got away from me and today is actually Tuesday but you'll cut me some slack, right? Okay, so here's what I'm thinking...I'd like to learn how to use all of the features on my camera to the best of my ability. That's right, I plan on getting books and doing some research so I can take better quality even more pictures. My favorite feature is macro (okay, really, super macro) and I use it a lot during the spring and summer--outside--in the natural light--when the sun is blazing hot. No problem. However, taking macro pictures without good, natural light is a problem . They're fuzzy or grainy...noise, it's called. Well, I don't like it, not one bit, so I plan on learning how to use my camera and the knowledge that I gather to reduce the noise. Here is a picture I took last week when the sun peeked out for a few minutes.

(f-stop 3.2~ exposure time 1/100 second~ iso 1600)

I was trying to photograph (in my bedroom with the sun shining through the window) a project that I am working on, but Shadow was so interested in my camera that I decided to capture him instead. Just look at those cute little white whiskers! They cleverly distract you from his insanely sharp teeth...I digress. This is what I know...the higher the iso, the more noise will be in your picture. He was standing in the sunshine pouring through the window so the noise isn't as bad as it could be. However, that is the highest iso number on my camera and usually the noise is so much worse. The massive amounts of natural lighting really helped this shot. When taking this picture I controlled the f-stop but everything else was automatically set by the camera. Next time I need to manually lower the iso and the exposure time to let more light in because as it looks here in Virginia it'll be cloudy-rainy-icy for a while. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my wonderful husband got me a snazzy little tripod for Christmas so when I want to take really good pictures in less-than-perfect lighting I can do so with ease...after all, the slightest movement will mess up the whole thing.
Any thoughts or helpful tips on taking better pictures will be welcomed, absorbed, and applied! Happy macro monday...eh, I mean tuesday. xoANG