Dark Pictures!Help!

Hi!i,m new here..Hope you can explain this one to me.. I got a Canon Power Shoot A1000..I'd to use it on one og our beach trips. My problem is some of my photos are dark given the sunny condition of the beach. Some of the pictures taken are great..Hope you can help me..

Attached are samples photo..It was taken the same day, same place and same camera settings.

The cameras metering is set to 'evaluative mode', and that mode exposed the scene to match the light outside of the shade. One way to avoid this is to set the camera to a center weighted or spot type of metering, as opposed to evaluative, then the camera will expose for the very center of the image (tight center for spot, loose center for center weighted).

Hi..thanks for the reply..wow..how am i supposed to do that? Sorry I'm so new in using and understanding photography language..can you explain further sir?

If I recall correctly, press set, the tab on the left pops up, the second from bottom icon is the metering mode icon, you'll see the options for the 3 modes in there.

You could also look up in your manual, probably under 'metering modes' in the index or something similar.

found and fixed it!thanks very much!whew!...i still have many things to learn..hehe!but i still love taking pictures anyway!thanks again!