Spontaneous dinner

I was invited to a neighbourhood dinner, and a snowshoe/ski in the full moon afterwards. Neil and Peggy were visiting from across the island. We had a beautiful meal of cod, rice, Mary Ann's beet salad, and my kale salad, pictured here. I took my camera wanting to get a blip of the folks there. I used to be a decent photographer years ago when working with an SLR, but after quite a few years on the digital camera, it still feels a bit like an alien object to me. It doesn't help that half the time, when the camera is on auto focus, it simply won't take the shot. I've read the manual, but it isn't helping. Taking pictures of people in a social scene pretty much requires auto focus. Thus the picture of part of the meal rather than the lovely folks at the dinner. Even this isn't focused the way I would like. Definitely frustrating.