1. Turn the beeping sounds of your camera off. It's useless, it's annoying (especially when there are thirty beeping cameras in the same touristic place), and it's a dead give away when you try to take pictures in places where it's forbidden.

2. You have two hands (generally). Hold the camera with both hands. It's amazing how much more stable it is.

3. You might not be aware of it, but your compact digital camera has an autofocus. Press half-way to focus, then all the way to take the picture.

4. Learn when you might need your flash and when there's no chance in hell it's useful. Of course you run out of battery, you've spend the entire day shooting at faraway landscapes with the flash on.

5. If you've failed to apply points 2 and 3, please refrain from uploading a bash of 170 mostly blurry and out-of-focus pictures to Facebook.

6. No, I don't want you to take a blurry, out-of-focus picture of me in front of the breath-taking landscape / historical monument. On the other hand, it would be great if you could get out of the way so that I can try to make a decent picture out of it.

This post was brought to you by repeated and close proximity with people who don't seem to be able to know whether their camera is up or down, and the misplaced sense of superiority I derive from having a vague idea of what ISO is.