• Media: The storage vehicles on which digital photos are recorded. Digital photography storage media include CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards, Sony's Memory Stick, and CDs and DVDs.

• Megabyte (MB): A measurement of data storage equal to 1,024 kilobytes.

• Megapixel: A measurement of a camera's imaging sensor. One megapixel equals one million pixels.

• Memory Stick: This chewing-gum-size memory card was developed by Sony and is used in most of its digital cameras.

• Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH): A type of rechargeable battery. Its chemistry gives it up to twice the lifespan of Ni-Cd batteries.

• Optical Zoom: The magnification obtained by adjusting a camera's lens. With the exception of lowest-priced cameras, most digital cameras have a minimum zoom of 2x. Some go as high as 10x.

• Pixel: Think of this as the building block of a digital photo. Each digital photo is made up of thousands (or millions) of these.

• Red, Green, Blue (RGB): The system in which most electronic displays (televisions, monitors, Liquid Crystal Display screens, and digital cameras' imaging sensors) work.

• Shutter Lag: The amount of time that passes between when you press the trigger and when the camera takes the picture. In this case, less is more; many inexpensive cameras can have shutter lag of a second or more. This takes a huge amount of planning and luck to shoot anything that's moving.

• Shutter Speed: The amount of time it takes for the shutter to open and close. The shutter opens, exposing the camera's sensor to light, thus taking the picture. The shutter speed is normally automatic, but it can be adjusted manually on more advanced cameras. The higher the shutter speed, the quicker the camera can take the picture, giving less chance of the model being blurry in the photo.

• SmartMedia: Another type of storage format which is a wafer-thin, matchbook-size memory card. It is widely used in less-expensive digital cameras.

• Universal Serial Bus (USB): Type of technology for transferring files between digital devices, such as a camera and a computer, at high speed. It's not as fast as FireWire, but it is more commonly used in digital cameras, card readers, etc.

• White Balance: Compensation for different colors of light emitted by different light sources (including the sun). Not all digital cameras have this, but it is a great feature to have. If you've ever taken indoor photos and had them come out with a green or blue tint, using white balance can compensate for this and produce natural tones.

Paying attention to the background can make all the difference in
a shot. In this photo the subject is in focus, and so is the background.

By shooting the subject with a longer-focal-length lens, you minimize
 the depth of field, making the subject pop out from the background.

Try something different next time, such as shooting into the sun. Here the sun's
 reflections give a welcome, dramatic look to an otherwise average subject.