This thrilling photo of pure blue sky is courtesy of a cleaned image sensor. When shooting a Digital SLR there is the disadvantage of gathering dust and debris on the glass protective cover on the CCD as opposed to using a point and shoot where the lens and sensor system is closed and sealed. With the D-SLR when you change lenses, or a high wind kicks up, or just because it happens that the sensor needs cleaning. First I try a bulb and try blowing the dust away, this doesn’t always work and you need to do what is called wet cleaning. Personally, I do not have the guts to do this one as I do not want a more expensive bill for fixing what I make really bad. A local company charges $35 to clean the camera or $10 more to stand over the technician’s shoulder while you gawk and try learning something – the only things I learned for my $10 idiot tax was that I am not going to attempt this at home and next time I’ll save the ten bucks. The photo here was taken pointing straight up with the aperture at 22. This aperture is horrible for showing dust on the sensor but very effective for letting you know how dirty it is. With a quick few dabs with his moistened cotton swab and a quick puff of compressed air, the sensor was better than new and we are ready to keep on taking photos.