Camera Issues...Among Other Things

I know I have not been blogging as much as I intended, and here is the reason: I am having camera issues. There is definitely a lot of knitting going on around here, but my pictures have just not been of a quality that I feel good about posting. I've put some things on Ravelry (because I can't help myself, Ravelry is so fun!) but I'm not loving the image quality coming from my camera. Everything is either washed out or too dark, and the flash is pretty much worthless.

I guess the question I am asking myself is whether the problem is actually camera related, or more of an amateur photographer issue. Before two months ago, I had not taken a picture in years. I just do not come from a picture taking family. So although my camera is an under-$100 model (which I personally think is plenty of money to spend on just about anything, besides yarn) is the problem really just that I don't know how to use it properly?

I had a friend here from out of town a few weeks ago and she let me try out her Canon. (I think it was the Powershot? Something like that.) It definitely took nicer pictures, but the conditions still had to be ideal for it to work properly. I'm not sure if it's the model I'm looking for. I don't want to jump into buying a camera without thinking about it, because I have a feeling I'll be stuck with the next one for a really long time. I'm like that with electronics. I just don't get a huge kick out of buying this year's model of whatever.

So that is what is going on here. Lots of knitting, not much blogging. For the above stated reasons!