The Gift In My Garden

This crab apple tree was a gift from the birds. I had nothing to do with it, but I love it.  I shot this picture with my Nikon point and shoot. I shot in program mode, stopped down 1/3.  I didn't like the fstop, so I changed it to f4 for flowers. I changed it to a tiff, resized it for the web and uploaded it into picnik.  In picnik, I used curves (which all of you have got to understand and use,) then used vibrance and added a frame. 

I wanted to teach you guys how to use exposure compensation, to fix your washed out blown out shots.  I have shot white flowers, white horses, white buildings in the middle of the afternoon, but I can't get the right washed out shot. Go figure, when I was starting out, I had nothing but washed out shots.  While I'm attempting to get this bad shot, I'd like you all to start to be aware of the light. Look at the light in the morning, midafternoon and the evening.  As the rat once told me, good photography is nothing more than romancing the light.