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Now you've learned enough to be truly dangerous. You now have the necessary information to go out and get reasonably decent pictures with your digital camera and subsequently be in a position to process them expertly in Photoshop Elements. But let's look at some of the additional pointers to keep in mind in order to truly maximize your results. Now, some of this may seem like common sense, but it's still worth covering. Now, a digital camera is an electronic device. The internal workings are delicate. Be careful how you handle your camera. Don't toss it around. Keep it in a padded cover if possible. Just be nice to it. Now, also clean the lenses. So many people ignore this important issue. Yes, those lenses are very small and in some cases made of lower quality glass or even plastic in some cases, but nonetheless, you should clean the lenses with a lens cleaning cloth only and lens fluid only before each use. Do not use alcohol as it leaves a film on the surface of the glass and don't use paper towels as they have wood fibers in them that will scratch the lenses for sure. Use only high quality storage cards. Sandisk or Lexar are the only two brands I would use. Now there are other manufacturers and most camera manufacturers will include a very small capacity card with the camera, but Sandisk and Lexar cards are virtually indestructible. Cards today are dirt cheap and the higher the capacity the cheaper it becomes on a per meg basis. Now I use Sandisk cards and once left a card in the pocket of my jeans. I accidentally washed the jeans and well, two years later that card is still working like a champ, plus, do not Ð I repeat Ð do not buy your cards on eBay unless you know who you're buying from. You'll see incredibly low prices on cards there, but these too-good-to-be-true deals are knock-offs or fakes. Buy only from a reputable local dealer or if you must buy online buy only from B&H Photo in New York. Keep the batteries fully charged, or if you're not using rechargeable batteries, make sure you use fresh batteries. Again, it's an electronic device. Low batteries will skew the exposure functions and you'll get poor quality results. If you plan to store your camera for more than 30 days remove the batteries to avoid leakage. Leakage can completely destroy your camera. Now, condensation occurs when you take the camera out of a cool environment and plunge into a hot humid environment suddenly, and if you have no choice, well make sure that hot environment is well ventilated so the condensation can evaporate. Condensation droplets on the internal wiring of digital cameras can short out the circuits and stop your camera from working temporarily, or worse yet, completely destroy it. Don't point the lenses at the sun. Now this may seem like a simple thing; unless it's very late in the afternoon, say an hour before sunset. Keep in mind that the lenses are focusing the sunlight onto the inside of the camera and if you've ever held a magnifying glass under sunlight and started a fire, well, you begin to understand why this is not a good thing to do. Keep your camera out of super freezing temperatures or super hot conditions. It's brutal on the circuitry inside and it also destroys the rubber fittings on the case. Use a memory card reader when you're downloading your images instead of your camera's computer connection. Your downloads will go a lot faster and you will avoid using the camera's batteries to perform this function. Some cameras will not allow downloads unless the AC is plugged in, which in and of itself is a hassle, so, just buy a reader, the most expensive of which only costs about 35 dollars. This is money well spent. And encourage your children to use the camera, and I can tell you that a huge percentage of today's working professionals were introduced to photography by a parent at a young age. And such was the case in my own background. I still have the 1953 model of the Kodak Retina Reflex SLR camera my dad gave me when I was 13. You'll never know but that you're starting the career of a new Andy Leibowitz, or Ansel Adams. And last but certainly not least, have fun! Try new things, think outside the box. Stand on ladders, lie on the ground, pass the camera around. Let people take the shot that they see. Hey, if it's not fun, why bother, right? Enjoy yourself.