You know what it’s like. You go on holidays. You get to see some stunning sights and go to some fantastic places. You take lots of photos, but when you get home you’re always disappointed at how dull, lifeless and ordinary your photos look.

Nothing that you wanted to convey in your photos is there. The sunset that was so stunning is gone. That extra special light that made that view look so special is missing. And you got that special smile on your girlfriends face, except that when you look at the photo you didn’t get that smile at all.

It’s not that you’ve done anything dumb like putting your thumb on the lens, you know better than that. You’ve invested in a good camera, you’ve spent some time learning how it works, and you really thought that you ought to be taking good photos now.

But every time you look at your photos you’re disappointed in the result and wonder why you aren’t taking better photos. They just don’t convey what you wanted them to convey.

You can find that it’s only a small step to go from a photo dunce to a photo pro. All you need is some basic understanding of some of the simple steps that every professional photographer knows.

Like simple stuff such as how to compose a photo properly, how to use light to it’s best advantage. How to take people and pets. How to take landscapes, how to use a tripod or flash properly.

There’s no doubt that modern cameras are very good. They take good photos if you know how, but don’t expect to just point and shoot and get a great result. It’s still necessary to know how to drive one of those modern cameras to make best use of them. You need to know some photography basics. No camera will take great photos if you just point and shoot.

Now of course if they could make a camera that would take great photos every time just with point and shoot they would, the market would be huge. But the person behind the lens still needs to learn some photography basics.

I’m not saying it’s hard, just that there are some secrets of the pros that you need to learn and practice and apply them to take great photos.

Then when you go on holidays next time you won’t need to feel embarrassed about your average boring photos. You’ll love showing them to your friends, they’ll probably be asking you for tips on how to take good photos themselves.

And you’ll be pleased to see your girlfriend smiling your photos too.

I’ve got a book about how to take good photos, get it on my website.