It may not feel like it, but gardening season really is just a heartbeat away right now. A new crop of point-and-shoot digital camera features make it suddenly possible for even an amateur armed with one of the newer $100 pocket cameras to take professional quality garden photos, including close-ups and stop-motions shots of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Most of the newer point-and-shoot digitals have good optical zooms and automatic settings that will adjust for difficult light conditions, motion, and will even recognize and clarify the subject of a photo.

Most cameras now include features that allow users to directly upload their plant close-ups and even short digital movies directly to Face Book, My Space, or a personal photo sharing website or blog. If an new photographer does miss something or have a problem with a garden shot, just about all digital cameras now provide free software that allows even a beginning user to make corrections and modifications on the computer.