UART Camera trouble shooting

I am using a VC0706 camera to store images on an sd card using the sparkfun sd card shield. I have gone through the tutorial on the camera many times. I can't get the arduino to connect to the camera or their comm tool. This is the guide that i was following. Overview | TTL Serial Camera | Adafruit Learning System i am using an arduino uno and the arduino is wired like this: TTL Serial Camera (CMOS) with Arduino Uno | Astronomers Anonymous
I tested to make sure that all the connections and wiring on the shield are good and they work just fine. If anyone has any advice as to how i may be able to trouble shoot this further please let me know and thank you in advance.

I also am using the comm tool that came with the camera to test the connection and am still unable to make a connection.

How do you know that the connections work fine?

With the SD card module removed, are data transferred from the camera?