A: Pick up a digital camera and start taking pictures. It's that simple.

If you're trying out digital for the first time check out Steve's Digicams for the best reviews on nearly every digital camera, digital cameras are as easy to use as traditional film cameras. With automatic focus and flash, you're just a point-and-click away from great pictures. Even better, you can view your image on a small screen on the back of the camera. If it's not exactly what you want, simply delete the picture.

A: You don't have to do anything to store your digital pictures. The camera does it all for you. The moment a picture is taken on a digital camera, it's saved to a removable memory device, which can hold lots of pictures, depending on the size of the card and the quality and resolution selected for the pictures.

From there, you store them right onto your computer on removable media such as CD-ROMs and zip drives, or in an online album this then reduces clutter and allows you to organise them by date, subject - however you like - with a few clicks of the mouse.

A: Just like any information stored on your computer, there's a wealth of options for storing your digital pictures. You can save them on your computer's hard drive, record them to a removable storage device (such as zip drives and CD-ROMs) for long-term storage, or store them online.

Your pictures will last as long as you save a copy of them somewhere, and the quality will not degrade over time, regardless of how many times you print or send them.

A: That depends on the size of the removable memory device and the quality and resolution you have chosen for the picture. Before you take a picture, you can choose the level of quality and resolution. The higher the quality and resolution, the more memory it will take up. As a general rule, pictures with larger file sizes will look better, but will take longer to e-mail or use on the Internet.

The removable memory devices are available in a wide variety of sizes, from just a few megabytes up to a more than a gigabyte (1000 megabytes). The advantage of using a large memory device or having several memory devices on hand is that you can keep shooting; you don't have to stop to download the pictures to your computer to save them. Also, because you can delete pictures you don't want, you have plenty of memory to save only the best ones.

A: The resolution of digital pictures now virtually equal pictures shot on film. In fact, today most digital cameras are so advanced that few people can tell the difference.

The key to making your at-home digital prints look their best is to use a good colour printer and good quality photo paper, or visit a retail photofinisher such as Jessops for good quality prints. Any of these methods will give your pictures a professional look.

In addition, as the price of digital cameras goes down, the quality of the pictures they produce continues to improve. In fact, many professional photographers now use digital cameras.

A: When you take a digital photo and view it on the camera, you can choose to delete it, eliminating blurry or poorly-framed shots. For example, if someone blinks, you can take the shot again. You keep the good ones as you go, so only the best pictures remain to preserve your memories. Digital photography also makes it easy to fix those pictures that almost came out just right.

With advanced software like Adobe Photoshop CS you can also manipulate pictures on your computer. You can easily get rid of red-eye, change the contrast or brightness, or remove background clutter. Plus, digital manipulation allows your imagination to run wild; you can insert text or shapes, alter the colours, create composites out of different pictures, or add your pictures to greeting cards or invitations. There's no end to what you can do.

A: If you can imagine it, digital photography lets you instantly and easily capture your vision. The result-you may find yourself taking pictures you would have never tried before.

For example, because you can see the pictures right away and decide whether to keep them, you'll feel freer to experiment with odd angles and unusual compositions. You can take a shot over the heads of people in a crowd or hold the camera at arm's length to take a self-portrait. And you can keep taking pictures until you get the right one. You can also experiment with the features and different formats your camera offers - removing the guesswork and allowing you to have more fun and be more creative with your pictures.

And once you've chosen the pictures you want to keep, you can push your creative frontiers even further with advanced software that lets your manipulate pictures on your home computer.

A: Up until now, one reason some people have shied away from digital photography because of the cost. No more. Many full-featured digital cameras are priced very competitively with traditional point-and-shoot film cameras. Plus, as the price goes down on digital cameras, the quality of the pictures they produce continues to rise.

In the long run, digital cameras may be more cost-effective than traditional photography. There's no film to buy or process, printing is inexpensive, you don't have to pay for prints you don't want, and there's no cost to share the pictures by e-mail or over the Internet.

The choice is now yours, if you require any further help feel free to email me...

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