Oh man, now I feel bad
It didn't kick into my thick skull that you actually took the pics until I read you post. I just assumed they were overcompressed.
I too took really crappy pics when I 1st started doing shoot, but as I got better camera, I ended up with better pics
I've never heard of that camera, but the last one I bought was very, very nice & very, very affordable:
http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php...roductNr=25519
Here's an example of a pics it took:
http://www.link-o-rama.com/wmxx/dscn4431.jpg
That pics has been resized form 1600x1200 & compressed a bit - it is 177k (big for free sites) but it is a good example of the quality of the pics that it takes.
I mention this because you might be better off buying a different camera instead of hiring a photographer