Every parent, myself included, has returned from a wonderful vacation and eagerly developed film only to discover that the photos produced were terrible. One Christmas holiday, for example, after trying to capture glorious sunset shots of the kids on Daytona Beach, I returned to develop my film and discovered a lot of dark pictures of sand with mysterious shapes that seemed to be my family.

Say bye-bye to flat photos

How can these post-vacation traumas be avoided? Is there some secret out there to taking great family photos? A way to make your family snapshots look more like those of a professional?

The answer is yes, and the good news is you don't have to be a pro (or even have a pro's equipment) to do it. I'm certainly no pro, but I love to take photographs — especially of my kids — and more often than not, they're pretty good. Below, you'll find a few helpful hints I've picked up along the way.

Here's the first, and one of the most important: Think of good photography as exercise — you have to be willing to move a bit.