Pod was very supportive last year when I decided to take the camera out of the bag. eos rebel T1i with eps 18-55mm and EF-S 55-250mm. 

I honestly appreciate the help jds, and band. I feel like I have opportunity, and the desire to take interesting photos. Now I need the knowledge to get the results. Point and shoot is a very bad habit... and I know that. The problem is that I like the second two photos better than the first set(above). The point and shoot keeps winning when I compare the two. 

Of course, I do understand that the better camera will eventually take better photos, when I learn how to use it. 

I put the camera on AV. It says AV4. How do I change it?

I have 4 hummingbird feeders in my yard, so I would love to set up the tripod, and snap a few of those birds. I'll wait for the remote to arrive. 

I have 4 hummingbird feeders in my yard, so I would love to set up the tripod, and snap a few of those birds. I'll wait for the remote to arrive. 

I did the exact same thing.......

Here's the best way.............set up your camera and big lens, Set your dial to "M".........press Menu, and you will get aperture and shutter speed values at the top of the display.  To change aperture, depress a/v button and turn the dial next to the shoot button.  To change shutter speed, simply turn the dial next to the shoot button.

Focus your camera (lens has manual or automatic focus switch) on your feeder. and take a lot of practice shots, varying your aperture and shutter speeds.

Your T1I is virtually identical to my T3, so I can walk you through different situations.

Okay, band. I put it on M, and pressed Menu. It did not give me the AV values. However, I have an AV on the dial. When I put it on that, and turned that button next to the shoot button, I got the aperture to change. 

Now, how do I change the shutter speed? 

When you have it on M, main your menu should display   M for manual,    a fraction indicating your shutter speed, then F5.6 (or something similar) then your ISO.  In manual, rotating your vertical dial next to your shoot button will change your shutter speed.  holding down the Av button while rotating the vertical dial will change your aperture (F-stop).

AHA! I was pressing the menu button above the screen. 

Now I understand your directions, which are not as complicated as I was trying to make them. 

What shutter speed do you think I should use for the hummers?

I have it on 1/200 and f8 right now. Does that sound like a good start? 

The iso says auto. 

Is your target in a sunny location, what lies behind it?  If you want to experiment with bokeh, set your aperture at F5 or lower. and your shutter speed at 1/1000, for starters.  Bokeh is the deliberate blurring of foreground and background, achieved by a limited depth of field , like in this example....this is achieved by having a low F-stop.  This will allow you sufficient light for fast shutter speeds.

The down side is that you have to be very accurate with your focus.  A smidgen off, and your hummer is blurred.

A couple more things to consider is your white balance, push the WB  button to see what yours is set at, change with the <> buttons, and set by pushing "set".  Then there is your ISO speed, in daylight, you should be using 100 or 200, late evening , you might have to go up to to 400 or higher.  This increses the amount of light let into the camera, but the trade off is more noise generated with higher ISO.

I got permission from the Photographer to post his photo of eagles here.........his name is Scott Kelley.

Stunning. isn't it?

 STUNNING. 

Thanks so much for your help. 

I did finally buy that remote. I'll experiment, and post my results when it arrives... if I actually get any results. 

Since band seems familiar with your camera I'll defer to his knowledge and experience and answer general questions when needed. For your hummingbird on the nest I'd still try using the camera's built in flash and using an aperature of maybe f11, see what sort of results you get. You shouldn't need a tripod or a remote for those shots. The camera should automatically set the shutter speed at 1/60 but that will be fine for the bird sitting still on the nest. Don't worry about the flash frightening the bird. A bird won't abandon a nest that has eggs or young in it.