Many people are frustratedtaking photographs. They see photos in a magazine and think that they can simply point the camera at a particular subject, press the button and bingo the image is perfect! It's not always that easy. But you can learn a few things to help you create better images.

1. For the sharpest images, set your ISO to 100 and your camera to the highest available JPEG resolution. Nothing is worse than creating a truly great image then finding out that it is too low in resolution to make that large print you want for your office.

2. Composition is everything. If you have a view finder window in your camera, try using that instead of holding the camera, arms extended and trying to compose by looking at the tiny LCD monitor. This is particularly helpful outside on a sunny day when you can't really see the monitor clearly. The little window in the camera will actually force you to compose decent photographs.

Watch for objects in the background that may distract the viewer of your photograph--like a tree that looks like it is growing out of a person's head.

3. Zoom in-- if someone is standing in front of say a mountain, try to zoom in on the person you are photographing so that they aren't just a speck in the final photograph.

4. Use Fill Flash - if you are photographing a person outside on a sunny day place the person in open shade (like the shade from a tree) so they aren't squinting into the camera. Turn on your flash--this will "fill" the person's face with light so they don't become a silhouette. Your camera will automatically set the exposure for a bright sunny day and the flash will expose the person properly.

5. Back up your images- select and print the ones you like and be sure to store those prints in a safe place, like a photo album or print box. Beyond this, make sure that you safely backup and store your images. Don't just leave your images on your camera--they can too easily be deleted and lost forever.

Digital images should be saved to your computer hard drive. They should also be saved some place in addition to this like an external hard drive or on a flash drive. And it's always great to prints some of these images out. This is part of your legacy-you want your children and grandchildren to be able to view these in the future.