Once I was invited to tea by an elderly member of my family and she asked me to show her some of my latest photos.

"Oh my" she said, "They are such wonderful pictures, you must have a very expensive camera!"

A little later she served tea and home made cakes. I said to her, "I must say, these are such wonderful cakes, you must have a very expensive cooker!"

The point being, unless you know your stuff, weather it's taking great pictures or baking wonderful cakes, the best camera or the latest cooker wont help much!

First you must familiarize yourself with your new digital camera and if you haven't used a digital camera before, there's a few things you must understand.

Remember, it's not too clever to spend a large sum of money on a brand new digital camera and after opening up the box only to read the instruction manual once and to not bother to learn all the cameras capabilities.

Like learning how to control exposure, how to use different camera modes and how to use the flash. Or how to Use Optical rather than Digital Zoom.

Cameras are marketed with both an Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom capability.

If you've previously used a 35mm.SLR film camera with a zoom lens, you would have been using an optical zoom. Optical zoom is the lens of the camera, or the cameras optics, which brings the subject closer. Digital zoom uses software to digitally enlarge a portion of the image and is not strictly a zoom lens.

WHICH IS BETTER: Without any doubt Optical zoom.

Read your camera manual and practice these techniques until it becomes second nature and the information you gain about your camera, will allow you plenty of time to concentrate on composing your picture and thinking carefully about choosing your backgrounds, avoiding unwanted objects. Thus also giving you more time to think about your subject or models and capturing that special moment.

The biggest advantage with a digital camera is that most have an inbuilt LCD, which means you are able to shoot your picture from different angles and not just from eye level.

When I'm shooting a pro' assignment, I often use a medium format camera which has a viewing screen on the top. This also allows me to choose many different angles to shoot my pictures. Now with the advantage of a digital camera's LCD screen, you have the same opportunities as the pros and this opens up a new approach to shooting your pictures.

Use a tripod: A tripod is invaluable in low light conditions, do not attempt to shoot without one. It's also ideal for shooting night shots in city streets etc. Also pros use them when shooting fast action sports, ball games etc.

Another advantage when using a tripod is that it will slow you down giving you time to think about your picture and surroundings. This way you're working just like a pro' and creating images, not "snaps"!

0ne of the major advantages of a digital camera is the ability to erase your photos. So use this to the fullest extent.

If you erase more often you can just keep the very best shots. It will also mean that you won't need such a large memory card, as it will not be storing your not-so-perfect images.

To learn more about how to use your Digital Camera go here: Digital Photography Pro Secrets

I'm from London. I started out in the days of the Swinging Sixties and London was quite a place to be. In those days we use to shoot catalog fashion shots with a 10X8 inch View camera, so the transparency images would be the same size as the image on the catalog page, I have to tell you right now that took quite some doing. Now I spent most of my time with my website: Pro SECRETS of Money Making PHOTOGRAPHY, writing about and teaching photography, occasionally shooting assignments.