[ianpinion]

Luke,

When you look at another photographer's images, do you wish you could take shots like that. Do you aspire to be more creative with the shots you take or are you just looking to take simple snaps.

If you haven't really decided then find yourself a decent compact, learn how to compose your shots and then experiment using some of the settings on the camera to see how these can effect the shots you take. For instance, if you set the camera into aperture priority mode you can alter the depth of field by opening and closing the aperture. That is, the aperture is like the iris of your eye it opens and closes to control the amount of light falling on to the camera's image sensor through the lens. If you open it up wide on a camera with a large sensor then only the part of the image you focus on will be in sharp focus and the background will be blurred. Close the aperture down and everything will be in focus. You can then see how this effect the shutterspeed and finally how the sensitivity of the sensor can be adjusted too depending on the lighting conditions.

If you get bitten by the bug and find yourself wanting to learn more about how to take beautiful photographs then you can think about upgrading your camera to a DSLR when funds allow.

If you've got anymore queries, just post them on this thread and we'll all do our best to answer them for you or at least ask you all the right questions so you find the right answers.