This is the 125th Army National Guard Infantry Regiment, I was given the opportunity to come out to their drill weekend to meet the guys and get some shots. They are mobilizing and heading out to Afghanistan and I will most likely be going with them to take pictures for a benefit gallery. One thing I learned from this weekend was these mortars don't go "thump" like they do in the movies, when the first one went off I was about 4 feet away and it knocked me on my butt, they all laughed and helped me up LOL

is this real smoke

Yes the mortar had just gone off when this was shot, it leaves a very large plume of smoke.

Is the white line on the top edges of the trees from the mid-tones or smoke? I do have to say that i hope you do not choose to go over there for the shoot. Its not a nice place and tomorrow my Daddy is going there and my heart is broken because of that. Please think about those that love you and take any other route you can even if it means the hard way to not not go. Please...

Amanda the halo around the trees is from when I saturated the blues. Because of the position of the sun hitting the treetops there wasn't much color there to begin with.

You forgot to say you werent going to afghanistan...

And wheres my 5 points dangit!? Hehe jk.

It looks upside down, because the eye expects to see the knife blade on the bottom, but I like the mood!

Thanks, MossyB. I'll try to rotate it, and see how it would look! Don't go away!

I think it works better this way, but I'm somewhat visually pedantic...

Pedantic or otherwise, what's right, is right, MossyB, and you were right

Thanks, author - I've been told that since I take lousy pictures, I'm not qualified to pass judgement on the photos here...Nice to know my abilities with a camera don't affect my abilities to see.

MossyB, I think your judgement on photos are very good, you are also very good at putting into words what is good about them.Keep it up. Saying that you can't judge photos because you can't take them is like saying you can't tell if food is good if you don't cook.

Brilliantly put, friiski. MossyB I just sent you a pm

Where do I send my 50cents?

Wow, it looks like the heart shape nose has been cut with knife Love the shape of the mouth on the card - very well done