Beautiful colors and you stopped the wings really well too, uusta used a "SuperFlash" and a nano-second shutter speed.
We have a screened in deck that birds seem to "look" through and think it's open air, there have been several to hit the screen and bounce off. One day I was sitting out there and heard a little thunk, looked around and a Hummer had impailed itself by its beak in the screen mesh, I walked over put my finger against the tip and pushed it back through, he flew off and didn't appear to be any worse for his accident. Would have gotten a shot of it but figured he was in a big hurry to get loose.

Allen, we also have the same deal that comes around in the graphics art trade, an upstart company wants a logo or business branding designed and given to them with the promise of more work in the future for the winning submission. Most of the time they end up with what we call "Nephew Art" (someone has a computer and a CD full of clipart and now they're a Graphic Artist). The amateurs presents them a dozen or more drawings that has nothing to do with the business or what they are selling, and they'll choose something based on what their wife, their friends, the janitor or their secretary likes then wonder why their marketing is not working. The professionals don't waste their time on these speculative offers as they know spending hours researching the business type, making sketches and finally producing a finished piece of art is foolish to present to someone looking for something for nothing. I stopped those type "customers" from even asking years ago by placing a sign on my desk and one on the office wall that states: Estimates Are FREE, Sketches Are NOT.

MT Shooter, said it all. If you turn the scenario around they'll look at you like your crazy.

Bike Tour, the photo tour sounds great, been years since I was at the caves, I was shooting film back then on a 35mm Yashica. A friend an I used to ride our bikes up to Horse Cave, KY and camp out once a year, ride around in the early and late of the day when it was cool but head for the area caves in the heat of the day.

Jerryc41, good links, we can all pick up some great tips from those.

Nice camera, I use that myself, it's not always what you use but how you use it. Don't rely on your auto settings for low light, practice in manual mode and learn to get acceptable exposures in a dimly lit room of your house or garage, think using two 40 watt bulbs as your light source in a 12' x 12' area. Set your ISO to a maximum 1600, anything over this and the T3i gets really grainy. A good 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 will work, the lighting is quite low in the caves, your kit lens will work with it's 3.5 f-stop but not as well as the faster lens. A fast lens will have you at 1/80 and less shutter speed and with the 3.5 lens you'll be at 1/25 and less, so any movement of the camera or subjects at these speeds will be blurred. A tripod would help a lot but opt for a monopod, it's less troublesome carrying. On camera flash will look horrible in most shots and off camera flash will be hard to handle unless you have some help. You'll also need a plastic bag or something easy to place over the camera, Mammoth Cave is VERY damp in places with water dripping from the ceiling. It will take a few minutes for you lens to acclimate to the high humidity, the first few shot immediately in may have a fog. Stay at the back end of the line and shoot behind you, you'll need slow shutter speed and wide open aperture and a steady brace with your monopod but you can come away with some neat shots if you take your time and understand your camera settings before going in. A little PP in your editing software can help with all but the worst exposures. Have fun, be careful, and be sure to ask the guide or at the ticket gate if can use a flash in the caves, some don't allow it because it can create problems for their visitors, once your eyes get accustomed to the low lighting a sudden flash from a camera can flashblind someone and cause them to fall or bump their head. Caves are dangerous places and we don't need anyone getting hurt so you can get a picture, that is the reason I say you should learn to shoot manual and be sure to leave the flash turned off in the camera menu so it won't pop up on its own.

John, you don't have to install PSE8, it's only a freebie to entice people to buy the tablet. Just install the tablet drivers which will be on a separate disc and you're ready to use the tablet with most any program on your computer. After the driver install you'll need to check for updates at wacom.com if the drivers are as old as the PSE8 there are newer ones available for free download. You might even offer to sell the PSE8 and get a few bucks back on your purchase as long as you don't break the seal or register it.

Looks nice. I'll have to try that feature on a couple of shots that didn't turn out quite as sharp as I hoped.

Love the scene. Sometimes it can be good to make a pseudo-hdr from one image if you have decent overall exposure and there is movement in the trees or camera shake, Photomatix does pretty good with just one image.

I had read in another article here on UHH that UV filters could cause a loss of detail, so I set out yesterday to try it for myself. My Canon 70/300 IS USM is not the best lens I'll agree, but I was getting some very soft images and was unable to get good AF, and even manual focus was still soft since putting the UV lens on.
Placing the camera on a tripod with the UV filter on, I used AF at 70, 100, 135, 200 & 300mm in manual mode for shutter/aperture, outside, sunny day, IS off. Then same setup without the UV filter and compared the images in my PP software, there was a BIG difference. Without the UV filter the images were much crisper throughout the focal range, a high-end filter may not degrade the detail but a $12 filter at a discount store surely does.

Working for family is usually not good business. If you are a professional photographer and making your living at it then you might provide a low resolution JPG with a watermark and send it on, if the horse owner wants a hi-res for printwork, they should pay you for it. Make your sister a print and give it to HER.

It's not beyond repair and you'll need artistic skills as well as technical skills. Some missing detail will have to be recreated, sorry but there are no magic programs or filters that will restore that much damage. As a graphic artist myself, I have learned to restore photos by years of practice working on old family albums, and it is a time consuming effort. This almost comes under portrait painting because you are having to digitally draw and "paint" human details that are not there. Large areas with few details are easy but to capture the expressions of the eyes and facial details will take lots of practice. Many programs have cloning and healing tools and that's a good place to start learning the process, but again, be prepared to spend several hours repairing a photo this damaged even after you've learned the tools.

Don't know that it would help any but it won't hurt. The tablet does not have software for making labels and adding arrows, those tools will be in whatever editing software you use. The Wacom tablet itself is just a big upgrade from the standard mouse. Depending on the size of the tablet you get will determine its usefulness. The small 3" x 5" or the 4" x 5" are OK but a larger size is a lot more functional for graphic work, you can usually pick up a used tablet on eBay for a good price. If buying used be sure to get one that is compatible with the operating system you are using and there are Windows drivers available for it. Research before buying is the best bet. I've used Wacoms for years in my business, I've had 12x18 and 5x7 but the 9x12 is a handiest size for us.

Victoria, nice photos! I love animal shots and you captured those very well. Trying to edit color on a computer monitor is hit and miss unless you have a calibrated system. If your images print correctly at a commercial lab, then the problem is the color settings on your monitor, video card or editing program.

Thanks MadMike for starting the HDR forum. This is something that sparked my interest a few years back when I started seeing those images in NatGeo that had such depth, I wondered how it was being done. Downloaded a couple HDR filter programs from the web and decided to go with PhotoMatix because of the control it gives, yeah I know you can do a lot of it in PhotoShop and PhotoPaint but dedicated programs streamline the process for those without the technical knowhow. Looking forward to learning some new tricks from you and others that see a place for HDR images.

Been watching from the bleachers for a while but think it's time to join the players on the field. I've "played" around with cameras for over 50 years and picked up a few tips here and there but never really got serious about it until a few months ago. Had several SLR's all through the 70's and 80's, bought my first digital around 1996, an Olympus 1.2 MP, then a couple years later a 2.5, then an E-10 and an E-20 that has served me well for the type shooting I needed, mostly product photography for catalog, brochure and web work and casual personal shots. Just acquired a Canon T3i with the 18-135 IS and this really sparked my interest to improve my skills and learn some new ones. Found the link to UHH at the Strobist site and looks like between the many experienced shooters at both places it will keep me busy jsut trying a few of the many ideas presented.
I'll be posting a few images along and hope to get some critique from the pros.