This week's results

OK so I think I figured out the white balance issue. I tried it using a grayscale card instead of something white, and it worked much better! I took practice pictures in my kitchen, where the light coming from the right side of the picture is incandescent and the left is flourescent. Here is a practice picture taken with auto wb:

And here is one with the custom wb set with the card:

Not a lot different and not a lot better. I'm going to have to keep trying the custom setting in a variety of circumstances.
Now for the other part of my goal - which was putting my lenses to the test to see the effects of different apertures, shutter speeds and zooms. I have 3 lenses, the first is my 55-200 zoom.
Here are some test shots:
1/800 f/4 ISO 100 55mm

1/500 f/5.6 100 200mm

1/30 sec f/22 ISO 100 55 mm

1/20 f/32 ISO 100 200 mm


As you can see it has quite a range! I shot similar test shots of the same subject with all my lenses, but I'll spare you all the repeats.
My favorite shot of the week is not actually one I took this week. I'm in the process of scanning all the pictures I took with the old film camera and found this gem from 2006.