What a tripod is doing is to create a very stable platform that the camera you have can use and allow you to take long exposures and not have the risk that the camera will shake and spoil the picture you take. Of course, you could just rest the camera somewhere, but with the help of the tripod, you could lock the camera in any position and you dont have to be afraid that the camera will fall over. But you might ask yourself how long would a long exposure be? The factor is the camera shake. Long exposure is considered one which you can not hand-hold steady enough. For example, if you zoom out to wide angle, the time can be somewhere at 1/30 to 1/60th of a second however, if you zoom right in on one long lens, it can be very short, 1/600th or 1/1000th from a second. You might think this is not a very long exposure. Maybe we need a new term for tripod's little here. Probably you noticed that sports photographers that are doing long lens, they usually work with amono pod, instead of a tripod, on their cameras. Thats not because mono pods are better, but because of their convenience in changing locations really quickly which outweighs the advantages that a tripod brings. Hence, a mono pod is really useful only if you need some quickly shots on a long lens , taken from different positions. Even if you use a tripod, there is a chance that the camera will move while you take the shot. Thats because the act of pressing on the shutter may cause movement. Even if this will be slight, the effect of magnifying of the lens will transform it to camera blur or shake blur. One way to avoid this phenomenon is using a cable release or a remote control when you use a tripod. The camera's self timer can also be used in case you dont have any of these. So in the case where the camera moves at the time when you press the shutter, this will have settled long time before the photograph actually is taken. Some of the cameras do have a self timer option precisely for this purpose, also called a short self timer. A longer shutter speed gives you benefits in the sense that a smaller aperture can be used for some greater depth of field or you can use a lower ISO for better quality. But, its a minor benefit compared to the psychological one brought by the tripod to the process of taking a photo. Simply using a tripod will slow you down, but that's a beneficial thing. Havent you looked at a photo and said: "it looks great, but there is one little mistake, that I wish I had spotted at that time." So, that's one helpful thing that the tripod brings. The explanation for you noticing the problem is that more time is spent by you carefully looking at the pictureafter you have taken it. Its always easier to spot mistakes after you made them. I hope that, people will understand the need of a tripod and its usefulness. The best thing I can advice to anybody is to get a tripod and use it in order to improve the skills ofphotographing.