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whilst i generaly dont like this style of picture because theres no

action (whatever, there was only 5kts anyways), the opportunity

presented itself so i took the shot...

comments and critique are welcome and appreciated.

Oh yeah now I see them, they keep dry in that wind, see my old

antigue Int Pirat, grounded, soon spring, then it will fly again. Nice shot

actually a kind of abstract,if you framed the sails ! niels

Dan, this is a really nice shot. What editing software are you using? Check your histogram in "levels", it never lies and it will show you this needs a levels adjustment. I was advised in November to do that as a first step in processing. You can't always adjust it to perfect, this I adjusted levels then selectively had to reduce red. Generally speaking some of these seem grey and underexposed which may be some of the difficulty you're having with the ratings. Your compostions are very good. It could also be that your monitor is playing tricks on how bright they look to you. Hope you don't mind my directness, I'm sincerely trying to help you get those ratings up! I might add to this a light burn on the white buildings and the red on lower right sail.

Niels, thank you for both of your comments on my photos.

Mary, thank you for your suggestions, i dont mind your directness at all. My monitor tricking me into thinking images are brighter than they really are seems to be running pretty constant these days. I had calibrated it to a chart online, but perhaps something has changed since then. As for the histogram... just another forgotten tool, more or less. Pluss, i only have the program canon supplied with my camera which is rudimentary at best... Cant dodge or burn etc and there arent any levels adjusters, just curves... I'll start using the histogram more often, though, as well as curves. Thanks for your suggestions.

Dan, I have the Canon software that came with the 30D, mine has levels under the Color/Brightness adjustment. When I open that there is at the top a drop down menu, it's set to display "Color Adjustment" highlighted in blue, there's an arrow to open the drop down with 4 options. Color Adjustment, RGB--(individual red-gren-blue)-Level Adjustment-Then Tone Curve. Below that are the slide adjustments Brightness, Saturation then Contrast. They work broadly. What a bummer if Canon didn't give you levels on that model camera! For the longest time all I had was that software and yes can't do some of the cloning etc., but I actually prefer it to PS Elements for Saturation and Sharpening, it is more sensitive and easy to control. (Haven't worked in or compared it to CS2 yet.)

Check to make sure you don't have it there, if not perhaps you can add it from Canon? I think they have a site, look for updates.