Nikon Lens Troubles

[FishMan473]

I tested things out with my macro lens as suggested and sure enough, there's dust there too. Guess I just don't notice it on that lens because I usually use it with the aperture fairly wide open. The kit is over a year old, for now I guess I'll just deal with it using Image Dust-Off, but it will stink not being able to really stop down a lens when using jpegs.

I have sent my other lens off with a friend who has a N80 and I asked him to take a few shots with it. I used the timer on the attached snake shot, I was about 10 feet from the subject, and the shutter speed was at 1/50 and I got some nasty blur. Some have suggested that at 1/50, with a 300 mm focal length that just mirror slap could cause such blurriness. If so, what can I do about that?!?