Here's another hummingbird shot. Cropped, brightened and sharpened in Photoshop. There were two hummingbirds, but one kept chasing the other away. I like the granular effect, it reminds me of high-speed film.

Sometimes, I find myself drooling because a photographer is in some place that's spectacular and dramatic all by itself. Sorry, don't have the budget to go there. But there's plenty of interest and beauty just about everywhere.

A good photograph captures your attention and says something to you, whether it's the Grand Canyon, Aunt Tillie or a dramatic war photo. I try to compose the shot through the viewfinder, not planning on major cropping, and get the exposure just so. But Photoshop is my friend. It lets me turn good shots into very good shots. Great shots? Perhaps in my mind, I don't know about yours. Posterity has yet to address this issue.

I checked with the cat, and he doesn't mind the changes. Haven't been back here for a few days because we've been without power for the past few days, so no computer, no Internet. I'm at the hospital visiting my daughter, and they've got Internet.

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

You'll get your best results if you attend the event.

I just joined this group. I use a variant of this as my desktop picture, though it took some additional cropping for this site. The original was cropped from a full shot. The cat has signed a release. Camera is a Lumix FZ-20. I like the long lens (12X), which lets me compose a shot without standing in the middle of traffic, and also doesn't call as much attention from subjects.