It is easy to take a picture with almost any camera. But how do you make it look like it was done by a pro?

I have been taking pictures with various cameras for a long time. I also started noticing that my pictures were not quite what I wanted, not just a few of them but most of them. Being that I am a lot older than I am younger I found that part of my problem was my hand would shake when I pushed the button. I found that it was very hard to hold steady enough that the far away parts would regularly be just the slightest bit fuzzy.

This problem is across the board with a lot of my contemporaries, and it was not really a problem with old shaky hands. It has to do with how the new digital cameras record the actual picture. I found that the different manufacturers of cameras were not consistent in when the actual picture was recorded. For instance some were right at the instance of the push button clicking, some were the instance after the click and some would not do the actual record until you released the button.

So it would seem that in this case holding the camera steady was the difference, easier said than done. A lot of it comes from what you are taking pictures of and the speed of the camera. I found that a good tripod would fix any problem with shaky hand syndrome but was also in the way a lot of the times. I found a gadget made by Targus that is a light weight walking stick that extends and is capable of mounting a camera on the top. This has turned out to be a very useful device, both for taking good steady pictures and as a walking stick (do not put too much weight on it). Here is Mississippi where the author resides currently a walking stick is very important due to the large amount of nasty snakes on the trails I like to walk on.

Stay tuned and next I will discuss how to frame a photo.

You can see some of my work here, and I promise to not show to many armadillos.

Currently working in the Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee area on a two-year project. While here I will be keeping a photo diary of places to visit and interesting scenery. Follow my diary and I will try to make it interesting.