The best photos demand cleanup of debris and other distractions in the frame. My co-Victorian PBS subscriber, Diane Whitehead, is meticulous in this regard. It's a treat to watch her peer through her view finder and then carefully remove dead leaves and blades of grass and other such before actually taking the photo. In a windy environment, it's perfectly kosher to use a clothespin on a tripod to hold a plant stem steady. In dappled sunlight, a diffuse reflector or even a thin scrim overhead will even out the light and get rid of the pattern of dark and light. A point-click-point-click-point-click approach will produce more pictures, but a lot of them will be distinctly secondrate. Even with the cheapest little digital point-and-shoot camera, there *is* a viewfinder: use it. PS: even those cheap digitals have provision for mounting on a tripod. Get one and use it. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…