Finally, finally, I put the camera on a tripod, turned off VR, organised my portrait settings, started to shoot in aperture mode and exposure and focus were all over the place. I took my courage in my hands with manual mode, and nailed the exposure. Now all I need is a longer arm to get a full-face in-focus portrait! Then again, blurry out of focus might be kinder to les femmes d' un certain age like myself...........