advice requested - Photos not sharp

Hello,

I have Nikon Coolpix 8800 camera, and, though it was purchased in 2005, I was able to shoot good photos, even when I used autofocus mode. Few months back, I stopped getting good quality and sharp images. I have not changed much by way of technique (do not know much about photography). I have attached two sample photos that I took yesterday. Can anyone please help as to what I may be doing wrongly?

Thank you,

S

the first thing i would check is to make sure there is nothing on the lens. chances are that is not the problem but start with the simplest things first.

yes, maybe someone smudged the lense. i got the same problem when i had realized i touched the lense by accident. doesnt take much.

I am going to suggest that you set the camera VR setting to "Active".

I suspect that you may have an unsteady hand and simply need to use the active setting instead of the normal setting.

As Carolina Photo Guy mentioned, go back through your settings and make sure the VR setting is indeed still on. Sometimes(but not often) megazooms and smaller point-and-shoots will reset themselves. I had this happen with both an old sony cybershot as well as a P100. Have you recently had the battery out of it for an extended period of time?