Fujiriffic Color, S6000fd.

Look at those colors. Just look at them. That's straight out of the camera, no editing. The only thing I did was knock Exposure Compensation down about 2/3 of a step. -2/3 EV, that's it. Yoicks!

The greatest secret of photography is learning to stage. Stage one is researching cameras to find the one that fits your shooting style. Stage two is learning the foibles of the camera, thus I know to go -2/3 EV in bright sunlight. Stage three is actually taking pictures. That stage should take several hundred times as much of your time as both the prior stages combined.

Of course, if all the equipment fetishists in the world were to stop buying new cameras every spring and fall, sales would drop such that the Fuji S6000fd would cost about $5,000 US. That's real money, by the way, not that silly play money they use in Canada and New Zealand.

Breaking the equipment fetish habit is the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. Camera companies continuing with the ridiculous megapixel race, which results in lower image quality overall, makes it easier. 5-6 megapixels is all you really need for gorgeous prints up to 20x30. Anything more restricts the amount of light available at each pixel site on the sensor, thus limiting the amount of signal in the images' ultimate signal to noise ratio.

This picture was taken with a 6MP camera, and I would absolutely feel comfortable making a 20x30 print, even after cropping out that beer can.