Hey thanks Major_Small. Yeah, I guess an over reliance on auto focus has taken away what little skills I had of focusing a camera. I have actually not used the manual focus on my Nikkor 18-135mm lens at all, so it is like learning everything all over again with the Tamron 90mm. Maybe I should start taking all my photos on manual to get more used it.
About your comment on not using the macro lens, I am yet to figure out how these great photos you see here and elsewhere manage to get so much into focus
with a macro lens, while I seem to have a razor sharp plane of focus (which I invariably miss
). I will certainly try the trick you suggested about firing the shutter while passing through the best focus, instead of trying to get and hold the best focus first. That should help me get oriented better.