andrew_hartman1

Higher speed film won't help make an image clearer unless the problem is motion. A still life like this, especially if you're using s tripod is entirely the result of focus. An autofocus camera such as the one you use generally has a minimum limit of about three feet for focusing. Any closer and the results will be what you see here. You're better off getting farther away from your subject and using the zoom to get in close. Try putting your flower on the floor and put your tripod all the way up, with the camera pointing down, then zoom in until you have the shot framed the way you want. A 140mm zoom should allow you to get "close" to a shot that is far enough away for your autofocus to handle it. Also, the parallax effect will be less, and the shot will be closer to the view in your viewfinder (this is how people cut off heads when taking pictures).

If you think you want to get into the creative side of photography I'd recomend moving up to an SLR of some kind, making sure that you can at least override the program settings. I have some semi- and full-auto SLRs, but I won't buy one if I can't use it in full manual mode for creative control. It also helps you learn the relationships between light, aperture and shutter speed and how they effect the final product.

Keep at it!

I, too have a picture of these statues, and I would like to know more about them as well. If you like, you can see mine at my website. Click here for

the specific photo. It should open a new window so you don't lose your place here. I echo the appeal. More information about these, please!

This was framed and shot in a hurry, one of the few times the subject

looked away. Unfortunately, this is full negative, so I've lost the

top left corner of the kiosk. I was trying to capture the

gravity-defying inventory and lost the better sense of background.

Any thoughts on how to improve it?

Shot one very overcast morning after an unusual snowstorm in Istanbul.

Do I need to tweak the contrast on this one?

This was taken under very low light conditions, and while trying to be

unobtrusive. The image is busy, but I think that is needed to convey

the feeling of the location. This is a full negative scan. Should

the steps on the right (or any other part) be cropped out?

The square cropping was needed to remove a pole and the front of an

oncoming car in the right foreground. I kept the rest as wide as

possible for the sense of motion in the background.