Those look quite nice to me.

Yes. Because the sensor is much smaller than 35mm.

Get a camera with a larger sensor (a dSLR) and a fast lens or experiment
with processing your images on a computer (select your subject, invert
the selection and apply a gaussian blur to blur the background).

Its very difficuilt to make that look as good as the real thing though.

HTH,

Rob.

Try using a slower film or adding a polarizing filter to reduce the amount
of light coming through the lens.  You can also try taking the pictures at
dusk to reduce available light or even at night with a flash.  If using a
flash, use a diffuser to soften the light.

Walt Hanks

There's not much you can do.  I'm not familiar with the S5000, so I looked
it up.  It uses a  1/2.7" sensor.  That's small.  It's the same as the Xi
illustrated here:

http://www.photo.net/equipment/digital/sensorsize/

Smaller sensors use smaller lenses, which have smaller physical apertures.
To decrease the DOF you can either increase the physical size of the
aperture or increase the subject magnification of the final output.  

Shoot wide open at the longest end of your zoom, and beyond that, there's
not much else you can do.  You are somewhat in luck, though.  You have a
really long lens for most small digitals...at your long end, it's about a
57mm with a max aperture of f3.2.  It could be worse.

So shoot with your lens zoomed out as far as it can go, and get as close as
you can focus, which is about 3 ft away.  That will give you the minimum DOF
that your camera is capable of producing.  

Hope this helps.

--
Eric
http://canid.com/

You've got the right idea(s) ... some of those images are actually pretty close.

Next time ... take your own background with you.

(1) Go to the fabric (cloth) shop, and get a piece of black wool felt (or even velvet ...
if you can afford it) that is something like 3 feet by 3 feet (1 meter x 1 meter). Make
SURE that it is NOT a synthetic (polyester and etcetera) felt ... as those fabrics will
"sparkle" if any light gets on them. Wool felts (or wool/cotton velvets) will NOT
"sparkle."

(2) Go to the hardware store and get a couple or three pieces of 3 foot or 4 foot (1 meter
to 1.5 meter) long pieces of aluminum rod (or even cut wood doweling or cut steel re-bar).

(3) Next time you find a nice looking flower, assemble the pieces of wood into a frame
behind the flower, and drape the black felt over the frame to provide a good background.

(4) Diffuse the light with some scrims or diffusers "as required" ... and ENJOY!

Get a close up lens and use wide aperture and max zoom. That is all you
can do..

Petri