The most common composition fault I see is not getting close enough, or not zooming in close enough, to the subject. I still have a tendency to do this, so my favorite lens is a good telephoto. You might also have a camera that shows only a small portion of the final photo. I have a Canon that shows only 86% of the final image, so to get in close I have to actually "overfill" the view finder.

Early September can still be really hot, and there is always the possibility of tropical activity (hurricanes). In north and central FL November can produce really cool mornings, good for reducing the insect population, but things are still green. I would recommend October to mid-November for visiting the the Ocala area, plus local fairs and festivals are in full swing, if that's what you enjoy.

I process my better JPEG photos in camera raw just to use the raw processing flow. I don't believe I ultimately gain much over just opening them in the regular editor, but it is nice to be able to adjust lighting, white balance and color in one location rather than using several locations in the regular editor.

To answer your question about learning Elements, start with the Help section. This will lead to numerous on-line tutorials catagorized by skill level and objective. If this is not enough you can Google elements tutorials and see literally hundreds more. I have found the Scott Kelby books to be both useful and entertaining, and you can have the various tutorials open next to your keyboard. Expensive though. I like Elements because I can afford to upgrade every three or four editions, and benefit from new features.

1. It looks was if was mostly cloudy, and probably not as bright as it could have been. I think I would have gone for f8, and not f16, under those conditions, to give a little faster shutter. You do not list the ISO, but if you were shooting 100-200 I would have bumped it up a little for the same reasons.

2. I have found that continuous focus leads to a lot of mis-focused images, especially if I try to spot focus then recompose. I avoid continuous focus unless I have a moving subject. I would recommend defaulting to single focus.

1. I don't see the purpose behind shooting "portrait" when all you get is more featureless blue sky. If you are shooting interiors fine, but otherwise ? ? ?

2. Finished pano's are rarely printed (where do you find photopaper 4" by 20", for example), and if shown digitally or emailed, high resolution is not required. RAW will add to your file size and more than likely your images will have to be converted to JPEG before processing anyway. Shoot JPEG

3. Pano heads for your tripod start at $150, but you get what you pay for. I made one from a laser level tripod and it works just fine.

I hate to see a good horse portrait spoiled by a fly on the face (I do a lot of horse photos), snotty nose, runny eye or a light pole growing between the ears, so yes, I edit every photo at least a little. A photo not worth 5 minutes editing is not worth showing anyone. Having said that, however, I am not into HDR, grunge, high contrast or the like. If somone looks at my photos and says "did you photoshop that", I've gone too far and I go back and make it look more natural.

Truthfully, I think the original photo might do very well for your purposes with a little cropping and exposure adjustment. It's hard for me to see how you could do this much editing for 100 photos a week. If you do want to try different backgrounds, look around your local arts & crafts store for 3 section foam or cardboard display panels. These are used by for art and commercial displays, among other things. They might be a little small for large dogs, but they are cheap, light, available in colors, and stand up on their own.

Serif offers a $20.00 pano program that not only stich's the photos, but offers various production and output options, including an output to Quicktime VR. Quicktime VR will give you a result that not only offers tilt, pan and zoom, but is small enough to email. After shooting you will probably have to reduce the resolution significantly to get something you can actually use. If your pano takes 6 photos, and you camera is 10MP, you could end up with a 60MP image.

I always crop for composition first, leaving the remaining image as large as possible, you never know how large a print you may want to make in the future. When ready for printing I select a crop in a standard photo paper size: ie, 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10. Yes, you can crop to any measurement (4x14 if you want), but where are you going to find paper in that size? If I did want a print 4x14 for compositional purposes, I might center on 11x14 paper and live with the borders. Or cut it to 4x14, but then where would I find a 4x14 frame? By the way, I usually download the full size version (to am's Club) then use the cropping feature on that site when I select the print size. If I change the name of the cropped image I can always go back and order a larger print without downloading again.

RAW has 3-4 times the data of a compressed JPEG, so the transfer/loading/processing time is always going to be longer. No way around it. I have a very old, slow e-machines so the additional processing time is very evident. I mitigate this by choosing between RAW or JPEG based on how important the final image might be, the lighting/white balance conditions and the number of images I might need. Honestly, most of the time JPEG would have produced a final result not much different than RAW, so don't feel obligated to shoot every image in RAW.

Most printing sites will advise you if you have a mismatch between the image format and the print size you have selected. You might have to look for the "crop" icon, but more often than not it is there. You then can either crop the image within the printer's interface or select a print size that matches the camera's format. If you have to crop you can save the cropped version and your full size version in case you want to order a larger print later. If you crop at home before downloading be sure to save both versions so you can print a larger size later if you want.

You may not have to resize before downloading. I download my images to Sam's Club (for example) in the largest size I have left after cropping for composition only. When I order a print the Sam's Club site will advise me if the image needs additional cropping so the image size and shape matches the print size ordered. If cropping is necessary the site allows me to do it on-line, and save the cropped image with a different name. With this method I have the original large image stored with Sam's Club so I can order a larger print without downloading again. If you do crop to a specific size at home make sure you save both the cropped image and the larger version. If you save only the cropped version you will not be able to order a larger version later without resizing UP, always a bad idea.

A little PP could make both photos significantly better. If they were mine, I would lighten the faces just a little, and blur the background a bit. The techniques described above are all good advice for next time, but see if you can find someone to PP these nice shots now.

Many printing sites will tell you if your download does not fit the print size selected, and let you crop the photo to the proper dimensions before printing or select another size that will fit. I usually download my photos in the largest size I have after I crop at home for composition. That way I do not have to download again if I later want to print in a larger size or shape. If you do crop before download make sure you save the larger size. If you crop to 4x6 and don't save the full size version, then later want a 8x10 you will have to scale up the 4x6, never a good thing.