Today I'm more focused on trying to figure out how locks work rather than how to pick locks. I can't expect to pick a lock if I don't know how the actual lock works. I found a bunch of nice little pictures on Google Images, a few gif's and a couple articles. These gif's are basically a no-word explanation on how locks work, and what I think I understand:
It's hypnotizing.
It's actually not sorcery; from what I've seen and read it's very simple. The above is a pin tumbler lock. The pins will always push downwards, but the height of the grooves in the key can force all of the pins to align, leaving nothing to stop the lock from turning. Lock picking is getting all of the pins aligned without the key. Like so:
When the black parts of the pin turn light grey, the pin is locked in place. From what the internet tells me, a click will be heard when the pin locks into place. There are varying numbers of pins in a lock the black and white gif above has five and the color gif has seven. More pins, more work.
Oh, and, concerning the tools being used to pick the lock in the black and white gif, the tool pushing the pins up is called a lock pick and the stationary tool at the bottom of the lock is called a tension wrench.
And forgive me for not knowing what I'm talking about.
Both gif's are from: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/how-to-pick-a-lock-in-one-simple-gif-1536001796