No, don't go away,fade away or get your feelings hurt. Maybe we can help you figure it out. If it is a "point & shoot" and there is no focus adjustment maybe you are just to close to the subject. Read your owners book and it should tell you how close you can get. Maybe someone else has other suggestions.

well SG hasnt always been a jerk...just been practicing at it lately... I would bet that if your shooting through glass the camera is trying to focus on the glass... but kmaxw is probably right also... step back a tad.. also.. hold the camera at arms length and hold it with both hands... and Dont move... also.. if the camera has added digital zoom ... Dont use it... optical zoom is fine but unless you can nail the camera to a tree.. your picture will be out of focus using the digital zoom function... practice practice practice... sorry for being a jerk...

I say don't leave! If you enjoy taking photos...stay! I have much to learn myself but feel I have learned a lot since I joined this site. I felt like giving in myself at times but realize the only way to get better is to listen to advise and suggestions and mostly..."keep practicing"!! All the suggestions above sound like good advice...the first thing that came to my mind was possibly camera shake. Are you moving the camera maybe when you hit the shutter? Keep practicing!!:-)

No, don't go away. One of the reasons why you may be having problems focusing is because you are not giving the camera time to focus before you trip the shutter to take the picture. All cameras, no matter how cheap, will have some sort of auto-focus feature - but you need to tell the camera to use it. When you are looking thru the LCD viewfinder and you have composed the picture you want to take, then press the shutter button down gently, but only HALFWAY. this should trigger the camera's auto-focus. Once the camera lens has found something to focus on, it should beep, or a little light should come on somewhere in your LCD viewfinder. That means the camera has focused. After that happens, then push the shutter button down the rest of the way to take the picture. If you are just pointing the camera and pressing the shutter button to take the picture, you aren't giving the camera lens enough time to focus on anything, so all your pictures will be blurry. Read back thru your owner's manual to find out how the camera will indicate that it has focused and it's ready for you to take the picture. (A light should flash or it should make some sort of sound or something). If you are already doing this, then there may be something wrong with your camera.

I think that the suggestions above are sound ones. I also think that if you can't figure it out looking through the LCD take a note pad and pencil with you. Take the same shot at several different distances and write down which was which. When you load and view them notice what was the best distance for your focus, and try to stick with that when you are out shooting.

Right now you have a 1.4 mp camera...right?? I would definitely save for a better camera. At least 3 or 4 mp...$200-300? The fact that you WANT to be a better photographer, is something you should focus on...I was serious about the free online courses...I am by no means a pro either, but I look for interesting things to shoot, not only do I like, but that I think others will like too. I have learned soooo much from everyone on here... angles, perspectives, lighting, depth of field, horizons, etc. I have also learned a whole lot about my camera by reading the book it came with. If I want my picture to come out a certain way, I read my book. Believe me...it was a whole new language for me at first. And, if you read everyones commment's on peoples posts, you learn what that photographer could have done better. Trial and error, and LOTS of practice!! If you shoot 30 shots, and only one comes out good, well then, there's a start.

Great input from the gang and fuzzy covered the auto focus very well. If this image seems sharp to you,is it possible that you need glasses ? Try taking a picture of a friend and they of you about 6ft. apart and both of you do a sharpness check. Don't give up now. Good luck. The K1000 was always the best starter 35mm.

Great advice and it's very cool that you came back seeking it! Good luck!

One other thing that you may want to try is to give your camera to a friend who is comfortable using a camera and have them take a picture. See if that image is focused. If it's not, it may be the camera and not your eyes. Also, this may seem like a dumb question, but is the lens clean? if you've got a layer of gunk on the lens glass, everything will seem unfocused. If you only have a 1.4 MP camera, the images that it produces will be very small in size and you (or your software) may be blowing them up too much and that is what is making them seem unfocused. I noticed that there is a fair amount of digital noise in the image you posted on this story. Try setting your Sharpness to 'sharp' and the image quality to 'high'. This will give you the largest and sharpest image that the camera is capable of producing. And good luck...