Posture
When hand-holding a camera, always try to brace yourself against a solid structure like a tree or a wall. Additionally, spread your legs for more stability and press both elbows against your rib cage as you hold the camera to compose your shot.

Most non-Pro digital camera bodies have a significant lag time between depressing the shutter button and in-camera resolution of the image. In other words, shutter lag is the elapsed time between depressing the shutter and capturing an image. This means that if you move too quickly after depressing the shutter button your images will be soft, if not altogether blurred.

It also helps to get in the habit of HOLDING YOUR BREATH for 2 or 3 seconds during the shutter release process. Don't laugh, it works! Particularly with non-pro digital bodies.

Background Checks
Few subjects offer us a spectacular backdrop. When composing your shot, look closely at the background of your intended subject. Is the background cluttered? Are diagonal or vertical lines visually piercing your subject? Is the sky uninteresting? Is there a looming building or other structure displacing visual interest in your subject? Are you so far away from your subject that it merges with the background?

These are fatal blows to an otherwise good photograph. A big difference between an amateur and professional shooter is that one takes the time to scrutinize the scene before they ever press the shutter button. The professional shooter will crouch, climb up on a ledge or ladder, lie down on their back if needed, or otherwise walk around their intended subject. Why? To get the best angle AND also to find the least distracting backdrop for their subject.

As you learn to do this you will sometimes find that the best subject may not be the one you are concentrating on! Let your focus wander, and give your creativity room to grow and flourish.

Mix Things Up!
Too many shooters reside needlessly in the amateur ranks because they have developed rigid shooting styles -- styles which inhibit artistic expression.

Just because most SLR's are oriented horizontally, it doesn't mean that you have to shoot that way. Mix it up! If you have a great subject and it looks good in a horizontal mode, think about how you can now make it an equally inspiring vertical shot. At the end of the shooting day count up the percentage of your shots that are vertical verus horizontal -- you may be surprised. You may be more rigid that you think!

The advantage of having an SLR body is that you can have a cadre of interchangeable lenses which encourage new perspectives. That 20mm view in your archives of an African elephant may be nice, but imagine what you missed by not grabbing your 16mm f2.8 for a REALLY wide shot that also encompasses the elephant's habitat; or a 70-200mm or even a 300mm for a more personal view of the little hairs that protrude from the elephant's expressive trunk.

I have long observed that lens choice reflects a shooter's basic personality and relationship to others. Those who prefer closeups are psychologically quite different from those who concentrate on landscapes. Not that one or the other is bad -- but those who move in close to their subjects are definitely more comfortable with a closeup and interactive lifestyle.

There is difference in impact, too, between a subject couched in stately eloquence off in the distance from a subject whose expressive face and eyes are making emotional contact with us as observers. One clearly touches us in a way that the other doesn't.

Strive for emotional contact. After all, that's what LIFE is all about.

Color Can Be a Subject in its Own Right
Try this: one day go out with your camera and concentrate only on color; colorful shapes, colorful scenes, colorful patterns. Tell a story with color and don't worry about any other kind of subject matter.

What you'll find is that color itself is inspiring. It is like one of those classic movies from the 50's and 60's -- you see enough to stir your imagination with some mystery left over to provoke you further.

Tell a Story with Your Images
Let's say you happen upon a beautiful rose garden, one that is bursting with blossoms. The typical approach would be to photograph the entire garden, or at least a collection of beautiful blossoms. And that would be very pretty. But if there was also, in that same lovely garden, a pile of rubbish, there would be your story: Nature in all its glory against a backdrop of mindlessly tossed garbage. There would be no need to explain your image, only to show it. That, in itself, would be a reminder to all that we humans can and do have a degrading influence even in Nature's most beautiful places.

In landscape photography you should have a strong focal point of interest to which all other elements will direct the viewer.

Avoid placing your subject in the dead center of your photograph. There is a subtle tension in the slight asymmetry generated by placing the primary subject off-center.

Leave space for action: space implies action. A person running on a beach should be placed so as to be entering the image with lots of room left over to run. Same is true for a bird in flight, or a sailboat under a strong wind. The challenge in creating any image is filling the space so that everything within the space has a reason for being there, and a relation to the other things in it.

Fill the frame: Robert Capa, a WWII photojournalist, said it best when he said, "If your pictures are not good enough then you're probably not close enough." Don't be afraid to move in.

Have fun with your subject. Compose boldly. Look for patterns, and reflections. Scan for diagonals and for contrasting colors and shapes. Search for the unique perspective. Create a sense of depth in your image by making objects around your subject slightly out of focus. Use motion blur to your artistic advantage.

These things will make you a better photographer.

But this is not real lazyiness. Real laziness is shooting from where you are sitting or standing, instead of going to the trouble of moving in closer to your subject. It is shooting what's immediately available instead of traveling to the harder-to-reach places. It is not using your tripod for macro work. It is hand-holding lenses that are way to heavy to effectively hand-hold. It is not crouching down or lying down or turning around just because it hurts, or takes too much work. It is framing without studying all your options first. It is failing to put your front and rear lens caps on before you put a lens back in your Domke. It is changing lenses in the wind or in dusty conditions without adequately protecting your camera's sensor. It is not using flash because you just haven't learned how to shoot with flash or you think it is too much bother.