When we were in Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday, it was a beautiful day and I took a bunch of beautiful photos. Some of the best were taken at Sprague Lake with a wide-angle lens. Unfortunately, the lens had a smudge on it, which I didn’t notice until hours later, so several of what otherwise would have been among the day’s best photos were marred by an ugly spot. You can see for yourself in this picture, about halfway between top and bottom and about a third of the way from left to right:

Ugh. Anyway, I’m hoping somebody with more Photoshop skills than myself can work some digital magic on this photo and make the spot disappear. The full-size image is here (1.5 MB). E-mail your fixed-up versions to irishtrojan [at] gmail.com. Winner gets credit on the blog and a free beer (or equivalent beverage of your choice) the next time I’m in your city (you’ll probably have to remind me, though).

UPDATE: Link to full-size image fixed.

UPDATE 2: Tom Greca, BrendanLoy.com’s reigning Chief Photoshopper, has done it again. He fixed the smudge…

…and he also created a brighter version of the whole photo:

I’m not sure which version I like better, but in any event, I’m very glad that the smudge is gone. Thanks, Tom! I think I owe you like three beers by this point. :)