I really love the Nevada one. The colors are beautiful. Here's one of mine from the Dominican.

Thanks for the comparison. Makes me want to keep trying to shoot raw. Finally, can see why. From what I have shot, could see no real reason to. All the ones I have shot are very grainy. Must be doing something wrong but don't have any idea what.

I don't see any telltale signs of cloning or obvious editing. There are orchids in Ecuador that look a lot like that. I've not seen them first hand but in pictures.

I'm sure this has been discussed and if you can direct me to some archives of such discussions, that would be great. I am brand new to this forum, so please bear with me. I have always shot in jpg but have become interested in raw. Have downloaded the ACR plug in for Photoshop and the DNG converter but when I do comparison shots (Nikon D3200), the jpgs are better quality than the raw files. The raw files have a lot of noise. I figure I am doing something wrong because everyone swears by the great quality of raw shots. Thanks for any advice.

The owls are called Burrowing Owls and were on Marco Island and the other shot was on a beach in Naples, Florida.

It does look like a beautiful state. Nice photos.

Beautiful shots.