Are you shooting in program mode? For a hand held shot, you are probably going to want to have a shutter speed of at least 1/60, but you might be able to do 1/30th if you are able to brace yourself.

Try shooting in the Shutter Priority mode, setting your shutter to 1/60th or 1/100th of a second. An ISO of 400 will give you enough light in most indoors circumstances and that f1.8 lens should work well.

Posting photos here as others have suggested would be a big help.

I've lucked onto a couple of great buys at pawn shops. I picked up a piece of professional audio gear worth $400 for just $40 another time. Auctions can be fun too. I've got plenty of stuff, so I have to be careful about how often I go picking or else I'll end up on an episode of "Hoarders".

Thanks for your help guys. Danilo, I haven't invested in any kind of equipment to trigger the flash off camera, but figure that at some point I will. Spending $5 for the flash itself instead of $100+ definitely helps out my budget for such a purchase.

Now I've got to get a battery for my digital multimeter and test things out.

I was poking around a pawn shop last weekend and found a Vivitar 285HV in very nice shape. It is missing the 28mm wide angle lens that fits in front of the flash head, but otherwise seems to be all there. I figured for $5 it was worth gambling on.

My question is, I know that some older flashes designed for film cameras have a high sync voltage which can fry the circuits in my Nikon D3000. I found a Popular Photography review of the unit from 2008 that says the newer versions have the low voltage sync and can be used with today's digital cameras. But how do I know if this unit is one of those? There was nothing in the manual under specifications about flash sync voltage, although I could have missed it.

Help please!

I came across this DIY project which gives a very nice smooth panning effect that is great for time lapse & video. The project is for a point & shoot camera, but it could be adapted to either a DSLR or iPhone camera.

Dave

http://www.instructables.com/id/wind-up-camera-pan/

I like to remember "GIMF" (Google Is My Friend - and I don't mean that in a sarcastic or snarky way). I just did a quick Google search and one of the first pages that popped up was a blog with what looks to be some promising links and videos.

http://photography.thefuntimesguide.com/2011/07/photobooth-instructions.php

Hope they help.

Dave

Why thank you. That's the nicest thing someone has said about me today! LOL

Here's one of the fireworks shots I got tonight. I was at a friend's place and many of their neighbors had some aerial bombs that rivaled the community display, so I aimed my camera almost straight up on the tripod and snapped away until my battery died (I hadn't charged my battery in a while like an idiot).

I agree if it was to be up for more than a night, but it sounds like this is for a team banquet. I still think an easel and some sort of display board would be the easiest solution. Someone with a little wood working ability could construct several easels at a reasonable price or check at Hobby Lobby when they are having a sale and see what they might have available.

Most easels will easily hold a 20x30 poster that has been mounted on a stiff backing. How big do you need to go?

Something about ISO that hasn't been mentioned yet, generally the lower the ISO, the higher the image quality and vice versa. Different camera sensors will have different sweet spots for the best quality. The higher ISO's will result in what we used to call in the film days "grain".

You will have your best quality with an ISO between 100 and 400 on many cameras. An easy test is to shoot the same scene at various ISO's from lowest to highest on your camera and what the difference in quality is when imported to your computer and/or printed at various sizes.

I pray that you remain safe. The 3rd picture from I25 is probably the most dramatic. Nicely done, but wish you hadn't been able to get the shots.

I pray that you remain safe. The 3rd picture from I25 is probably the most dramatic. Nicely done, but wish you hadn't been able to get the shots.

How about a simple easel?

Here are a few bird photos I've taken over the past week or so.