Oh, my gosh! What a terrific shot....thanks for sharing!!!

Thank you so much Carol!
I missed this one!

{{gwi:434343}}

Love that first one, "Coming in for a landing"!!

Both are excellent shots. I planted some just plain red poppies and they bloomed last month now this month I have pink poppies blooming on the same plant. My son says it has something to do with the nutrients in the soil. Looks weird to me.

Love those bees!

Great pics, I love those kind.

Valerie

Nice stop action shot. I don't have a lens that will reach 300mm :-(.

I'm putting my feedback to your comments on my L photos here in case you don't check back on that thread.

I see you have a Rebel XT, shot at 1/1250 sec, unknown software, doesn't show me full exif, which means that you probably don't have CS2. I couldn't have done it without tons of work without that. I used CS2 image>adjust>shadow highlight, the defaults are about right on, usually they are way too strong at default values, you have to play with the sliders which is very, very easy. I was never able to do that with Photoshop 6 or my Paint Shop Pro or DPP or RSE. I don't know how to use the latter two very effectively, if at all. I was using DPP (free from Canon) for minor adjustments and converting from RAW. Some people swear by it.

CS2 I waited years to get a chance to get a legal copy at a good price. I got mine at $299 with my WACOM, got my granddaughter a copy using the Elements that came with my 20D. You probably got Elements with your XT. If you get out the envelope with the serial number, you can order it from Adobe at the $299 until November unless they've changed the offer. Tell them it's Canon and call another rep if they don't seem to know. If you are in Canada, it could be different. I'm so glad I spent the money for that finally.

There are other tricks and techniques but they are more involved and time consuming. Some people shoot RAW (as I do now) and in the software, not the camera, expose one for shadows, then expose a second one for highlights and blend the two in layers.

I've had good mentoring, but in all humility, I'm a lightweight compared to some of the people I've shared photo processing techniques with. After I posted mine, I wish I'd used color adjustments and backed off the yellow a bit, played with the other two sliders, because I lost the richness of the deeper greens.

The playhouse is probably close to 6 feet tall, possibly 7, hard to guesstimate, but I am 5'7" and I had to look up to get the children dancing across the apex of the roof.

Thank you aliska for your nice comment and this extensive explaining!
I don't think I'm ready for CS2, ...My Rebel XT came with Zoom Browser EX, it was my last Christmas gift, [self bought] LOL.
Konrad

Love those photos.