[Leica] Newbie questions

[Mary & Stan Kephart <kephartol@att.net>]

Greetings to all,

I continue to be grateful for all the helpful information that flows 
through these threads.

Yesterday I picked up a roll of color prints that I shot over the 
weekend.  On several occasions I missed a nice shot (a little girl 
playing with a beach ball) by being too slow.   My old SLR was manual it 
seems it was faster to set than the M6.  Is this just me?--or are there 
some techniques I need to learn.  I try to set the exposure for the 
general lighting, so all I have to do is focus at the last minute, but 
I'm often off by a split second.  (I got an interesting shot of the girl 
with the beach ball right in front of her face.)   I've visited many of 
your websites and have seen some really "just right" action shots.  Would 
love to know how you do it.

Also, do any of you use a color head for b&w printing?  If so, how 
efficient is it?

Thanks in advance,

Mary K