Jay

Greggles, a few thoughts.
When taking a picture try and have a clean plain background. Other trees in the back make it difficult to see. Lets face it, 2-D pictures are a far cry from the true 3-D reality. Having other things to look at makes it harder. Also try and put something in the picture for scale, a tree in a pot does not tell the whole picture... some use beverage cans, others use rulers, some put cell phones, either way it gives some sense of size.

None of us do anything to our trees that we think will harm (read kill) them. Unfortunetly, there is little chance that we will not kill some trees in our attempt to work them. As our knowledge and ability increase we minimize the losses but they still come. Even the greatest masters have trees that die.

Although it will cost you time, it is usually better to wait, sometimes it might be even as long as a year or more, to do the work on a tree. Why? Perhaps it is the incorrect time of year. Or, it could be the tree is not healthy enough to do 'this or that' to it. The tree may have been recently collected and needs time to recover. OR.... you may not know which way to go with the tree. You need to have a plan, a vision of where it is going.

Best of luck
Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing