Professional Photographers PLEASE !?

Now I am using a Kodak Z1275 Easyshare 12 MegaPixel 5x Optical Zoom, before I had a Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP. With my Kodak the pictures usually come out blurry when I am taking them of myself but come out nice and sharp when I take them of other people. It doesn't take very good pictures close up. My Canon took fairly nice pictures close up and when I took them myself. I have tried every setting on my Kodak and am starting to learn how to use Manual. Is there anything I can do to help improve the images ?

These were taken with my Kodak-
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...

These with my Canon-
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm279...

I plan on getting a Nikon D40 pretty soon. I know that the cameras I have been using are just average but I still got some good snapshots from them. The Canon had a Macro setting but the Kodak has only a "close up" setting.

First of all, neither of these cameras is "professional" quality. They are good consumer (amateur) cameras that take very good photos for most uses. Don't expect too much from them.

Every lens has a minimum focusing distance. If you place the camera closer than this, your image is going to be blurry. I would suspect that what you're seeing is that the Kodak's minimum distance is slightly greater than the Canon's. This isn't surprising. The Canon lens is probably a better lens all around.

To overcome this problem you need to either upgrade to a camera that allows you to use different lenses (called an SLR - very expenseive!) or see if your camera has a macro feature that allows you to get closer to the subject. This probably won't be good for snapshots of people though. It's designed to get really, really close on super-small items.

Check your camera's manual and it will have detailed information about the acceptable focusing range of its lens. Try not to get closer than this minimum distance and your photos should all come out sharp.

There's probably a macro setting that you should use for the close-ups.