I'm showing this in stages from the final to the original. Gretchen, I did as you suggested and used Picasa to crop and soften the picture.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/42446ae1061351bc.jpg

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/42446ae0f75e26f0.jpg

Here's the original shot with my Nikon N6006 film camera.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/42446ae0efbd8f37.jpg

good work! looks awesome!

Thanks huntrz. Coming from you that's a real compliment. (I've been admiring your photo work here.)

Good Work! How do you like picasa?? It makes it easy to keep track of stuff...for instance...any I post here...I export to a folder called silo...I just wish they would add a clone tool then I would be really happy! It is absolutely the eeasiest way to resize and to crop photos.....

One thing I noticed is how easy it is to work with. It doesn't have all the features of Gimp, but it doesn't have the steep learning curve either. I used Gimp for the shark chasing the pontoon, but I'm not sure I could pull that off again.

I've spent all day finishing up a batch of wedding shots..and I don't care if I open photoshop again for a month...they wanted family portraits with a studio background..but I shot them in a community center during the reception...oh how tedious cutting them out...putting in the studio backgrounds...long live picasa!!!

I use Picasa2.
What do you use to cut them out and put in a different background ?

I use Picasa2.
What do you use to cut them out and put in a different background ?

I use photoshop 7 for that..sometimes Paint Shop Pro XI, but I have better results with Photoshop...I have lots of studio style background files if you ever need any..I'm happy to share...(also have a tutorial to help you get the hang of it..) If I shoot them against a chroma key background, it's a snap...but when there's just who knows what behind them...it gets kinda tedious....

I've tried cutting stuff out with photo shop. I was never happy with my attempts. If you did multiple pics with multiple subjects....I am impressed!:)

I've tried it with GIMP (that's how I put the shark in Rend Lake) and it isn't easy that way either.

any comments, suggestions, please don't laugh too much.

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/thum_49146bf65ea98e50.jpg ('http://www.siloutdoors.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=305')

That's how one of our dogs cools off too.

What kind of camera do you have and what setting did you use or did you just use the auto?
Is this the original?

Just a little Nikon Coolpix L4. I dont think it has any settings. Maybe I was using the Macro, I dont remember.