For your review

Fixed the image for you:

waterfall.jpg
 
Should link up ok now. Sorry.
 
very nice, if you can return to the same location try a long exposure on a tripod. The water effect is really fun, and a good learning tool for long exposure shots.
 
I like the composition. It would be much better if you had a longer shutter speed--say a few seconds rather than the 1/8 it was shot at--to blur the water's motion. Unless you were trying to stop the motion of the water, which doesn't work for me in this case.

It looks a tad underexposed. A simple levels adjustment should take care of that. Needs more saturation to get those greens to pop out, more contrast wouldn't hurt, and some sharpening.

I'd show you what I'm talking about but it's not OK to edit your photos, so...

You have some blurring in the upper-left part of the image. It's not from depth-of-field, and it's not motion blur either because everything else is fine. Is your lens defective or something?
 
Thanks for the thoughts/ideas. I'm really interested in learning how to make my shots better, so I thank you.

No, I didn't have a tripod, and it was raining. I see that blur in a lot of my photos - think it is the lens. My camera (a point and shoot) has been around the world and seen almost every condition. Its a few years old too.

How do I use a longer shutter speed and get a proper exposure? I don't want to blow things out. Is my Canon S5 IS able to do this? My f-stop range is only 2.7 -8.

Thanks again
 
^^^ I actually dislike long exposure water shots. I think they are cliche like crazy. Granted... what shot of water wouldn't be cliche anyway? You have to pick what level of cliche you are ok with. :)

That being said, even a "relatively slow" exposure like 1/2 a second is going to give you SOME water blur... several seconds gives you that whole "OMG THERE IS BLUEBERRY PUDDING RUNNING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!" effect, which is... interesting. :)

BTW, on your shot it LOOKS like you missed the focus. hmmm... might have been motion blur. Did you have a tripod? 1/8th handheld is very likely to give you blur from hand-shake.

The shot is also a little underexposed. Might want to brighten it up. Looks from the light like it may have been overcast, so I'm not too surprised.
 
To get slower shutter speeds you simply stop down the aperture. However, a minimum aperture of f/8 is very limiting for slow shutter speeds. Your only other option is to get an ND filter to drop exposure. You'll be able to get slower shutter speeds as a result. Even if your camera can't take screw-in filters you could still hold a filter in front of the lens with your hand.
 

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