Learning from mistakes

I've been having problems with focus (both auto and manual)since I bought a Canon 40D.
I am not blaming the equipment, since I have some nice focused pictures. It's obviously something I am doing wrong. I tend to use auto focus outdoors and manual focus for stills and macros.
Judging from the attached picture, here are my "excuses":
1. Taken during a very rushed tour. Barely time to set up since my husband also uses it and keeps on changing to manual. From now on I will insist on him taking his Olympus SLR.
2. Definitely overexposed
3. Camera shake. Had I had the time I would have increased the shutter speed to at least 1/150 since the focal length was 96mm, changed the aperure to 8 and adjusted the ISO accordingly to get a correct reading.

Would point 3 have corrected the problem? Besides the underexposure is it just camera shake or also a focus problem?
Please C & C!

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It's soft, but I can't say if it's focus or camera movement. The boards on the left look a little sharper than the ones on the right. Are you sure your husband didn't also turn off auto focus on the lens? EXIF says you shot it at 1/80 sec at 96mm focal length. That's a little slow to avoid camera movement, unless you were using an IS lens. This would be especially so if you were rushed.

I wouldn't say that it's overexposed as much as flat. You can fix this in Levels.

There are devices that will administer a painful electric shock if somebody changes the camera settings. (Don't you wish?)

That's a great idea!!! Imagine the device reading your fingertips and automatically re-setting to your saved settings.
I just bought a point and shoot for those occasions.
Will use the 40D for serious photography.
Maybe I can "save it" by applying a nice filter....