Once upon a time back when the internet was new and novel, I read a book on information systems that attempted to distinguish these three terms which is often massed together as one - Information, Knowledge and Skill.

• Information is data.
• Knowledge is applied data.
• Skill is the measure by which the data is applied successfully.

It was easy to understand. However, it was not of late that it went beyond understanding to appreciation, thanks to me botching my photographs in the Spice Garden three weeks ago.

I was puzzled why all the photos taken in Manual, Aperture-Prioriy and Shutter-Priority turned out over-exposed, while those taken in Auto-Mode turned out decently well. I thought I had covered all the bases - but my light meter kept giving me Aperture and Shutter combinations that were turning my photos white. I changed my light meter from matrix to center to spot; metering specifically off the mid tones or cloudy skies, but it took plenty to tame the camera. It seemed indignant, adamant on misbehaving.

Two days later when I reviewed the photos, I realized something. OMG - the ISO was turned up to 1600!! I forgot to reset the ISO after Louis and SookPing's wedding! The coin drops and all the pieces fell into place. No wonder it was so difficult to set the correct exposure and no wonder the photos all turned out grainy! (see below).

ps: By the way, ISO 1600 here affects the quality of the photo but does not refer to the ISO quality standard certification.

I've always held the belief that the gap between knowledge and skill is not that wide, that once you really mastered a subject (the difficult part),it will not be too difficult to apply it succesfully. I mean, if you truly knew what you were supposed to do (knowledge), how in the world would you screw it up (skill)? I guess the answer lies in the inherent nature of being human. Sometimes you 'temporarily' forget what you were supposed to do. Sometimes, only by doing do you measure how much you really know in the first place. This was a clear lesson for me. There will always be a big gap between knowing and actually 'doing' it. This gap I believe, can only be filled with experience.

Flawless execution is impossible because we are human. Practice and dilligence makes the difference. I guess this applies to everything from photo-taking to your career.