thanks so much guys for all your feedback! sorry i'm so late in replying. i worked so many hours...so busy at the holidays...came home and crashed after work. Andrea, OMG...you're giving me HOPE!!!! You did a FABULOUS job removing that shadow!!! I use PSP7 so maybe i can do it!!! I'm not very good at postwork stuff in general, but when i see the final result of what you did, i'm determined to do it too...even if it takes me weeks!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that and to explain!! Kort, i did try blurring the shadow but i never liked the results. i felt like that shadow was just way too distracting. perhaps if i blur and THEN try to clone it might be easier. thanks! Richard, i took a crappy shot and had to do postwork to fix it. the way this turned out is not as i had hoped. i wanted it to be way sharper. Thanks for your nice words! Marlene...thank you!!! i hope you're able to fix that image!! :) JimBo, thank you!! :) agree with you about getting lower. i can't remember now what position i was in when i took this. Lee, thanks for the tips! perhaps it's time for me to upgrade to PSP9! Carl, appreciate your feedback! i agree...sometimes a soft focus can be quite lovely with kids. unfortunately, when i took this shot, i was striving was nice sharp focus. that's why i was so disappointed. Carlos, thanks for your very nice words!!! they have a rule about posting only one image per person on the Simon thread, but thank you for feeling like this would be a nice one to be included! :) Thanks so much to everyone for your feedback and help!! Your responses have been that this image has some merit despite the flaws, so i will continue to work on it. Andrea has shown me i can fix that ugly shadow, and I'm bound and determined to do it!!! :) thanks so much again guys!!!!! :)