Definitely not a professional. But i do edit almost every picture i share in some kind of program...it makes a really big difference to just do simple things like crop and adjust brightness and contrast. I also take numerous pictures of the same thing, with different settings. Like...i took tons of aspen pictures, the one i shared with you i took with the exposure compensation bumped down a few levels, which helped show the blue sky off to the best advantage. When you take 600+ pics in a week or so, some of them are bound to be okay!
Experience builds skill. Or, practice makes perfect ...
You are willing to take all those pictures, then mess around with them, Heather! Just those edits you mentioned are the little things that make big differences, often. These cameras, they are difficult to hold. Images can be straightened in a program like picasa or in an online gallery. It's remarkably how getting a pine tree to vertical can improve a photograph, making it look more like reality.
Here's a challenge, Heather! Get a picture of a tiny bird like a Song Sparrow and do it in such away that its uniqueness comes through. For the Song Sparrow, the photograph would suggest how it isn't an English Sparrow. I wish I could do it for my little garden companion .
That Navajo Loop trail is gorgeous.
I backpacked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon when I was a teenager and was astounded at the layers of rock and the changing views the deeper we went. You captured the texture and grand space of that area well.
Stunning photos. DH and I hope to make it there in our retirement. But sadly my bum feet and knee will probably make all but the most level (and short) hikes impossible. I think I could still have fun trying to capture the beauty of the area with my camera. The family portrait is very nice. Such a handsome couple with the darling Lucy dog.