Goal for your picture
 I have found that one of the biggest aspects of 

getting a good picture is planning for the

 picture or having a goal.

To get these pictures, we decided that we were 

going to look for turtle pictures.  

We asked around and found a place where the

 turtles were close.  We asked for permission to

 go onto the property and the rest was easy.

My goal was to get the turtles face out of the 

water, full on, but when i did i found that i liked

 the ones from the side better.

Most photographers  who take pictures of

 horses running want to get the shot with all 

of the feet off the ground and tucked under

 them and I am no exception.  To get this shot, 

I used a very fast 

shutter speed, 1/800 of a second.  The camera 

was on shutter speed mode or sports mode so

 that the camera chose the correct f-stop and I 

followed the horse pressing the shutter button as often as I could.  You may call it a lucky shot but

 my dad always said "the harder you work, the 

luckier you get".
Put your camera onto sports mode and see if

 you can get a similar shot. 

I use my tripod all the time.  it makes a 

huge difference when you want sharp

 pictures.  When a picture is small, on

 face book or ona website you don't see

 the lack of sharpness but if you want

 your picture printed, you will need to

 have a sharp image. Especially if you

 want a large print.
There are two thing that cause a blurry

 image, lack of focus and a shaky camera

 and the tripod can keep your camera steady

 and solve one of  your problems. 

The spot that is circled in the picture is a 

dust spot on my picture.  The dust is actually

 on my sensor.

it does not show on on every picture.  Sometimes

 it is a lot lighter and slightly grey and 

sometimes it is very faded.

You will see the dust spots when you take 

pictures with a small f-stop, f-11, f-16, f32.

if it is just a light piece of dust you can take 

off the lens and use one of the bulb air blowers

 to blow air inside of the camera to blow away 

the dust.

CAUTION

Do not use the tin air blower.

Do not blow into your camera with your damp 

breath.

Make sure that the blower that you use is clean

 and not damp.

Clean your camera in a clean area with no dust

 in the air.

If this does not work, get your camera serviced

 by a professional.  You may be able to clean it yourself but your sensor is delicate and easily damaged.