There’s been a few comments about my dismal photography skills. Let me say a few words. Re white balance, frankly I know nuts about adjusting it. I put my Canon IXUS 400 to Auto White Balance so an idiot like me doesn’t have to worry about such things.
If my pictures turn out yellowish, then it’s because often I don’t use a flash as I sometimes find it too obtrusive. The flash also tends to make the picture look rather stark. I prefer the warmer, yellow tones. That’s just my preference but to others it’s grating on the eye.
As for technicalities like aperture and stuff, I wouldn’t claim to know much about it. I’m hopeless with all these. I’ll read and then forget about it.
Anyway, Yu Zi commented that he would take the picture I took of my poodle from a different angle. Yu Zi, so you mean something like the one below? I took this shot at the same time I took the first pic.

From your description, it seems like you’d have taken a tighter shot than this, but if you did so, you wouldn’t be able to see the person either. Personally, I like the angle in which I’ve taken the first photo because the curve of the armrest seems to be parallel to the curve of the dog’s spine. The picture seems to be divided into thirds because of this. Granted though, the focus was wrong. I have problems with the auto focusing!
And how is that photo below “better” than my food photos?
Comments from others are welcomed too!