Wildlife II
by srdanz

Comment:
yup this is the one. for me it is the relationship between the tones on the bird, and the tones on the backround, which invert almost perfectly here to give the outline a crisp definition on both the black and white areas of the bird.

Message edited by author 2006-02-01 13:14:48.

el`e·men'tal : John Paul Caponigro
by Rikki

Comment:
I think there might be an issue here. Rikki goes to Japan and returns a ribbon winning machine! Time to check the basment for pods!

congratulations who ever you really are.

Skimming Along
by gbloore

Comment:
I like how low to the water you are here, both the bird and the POV. The colors are rich and the shape of the bird and the trailing feet are well defined. Of course getting the water that nice tone came at the cost of conciderable loss of detail in the wing. Some day I will see a shot that gets all the textures in the egret's wing, but still keeps the backround nice and bright.Still good focus and DOF; ought to be right up there if the big white birds over water don't split their votes.

Great Everglades Egret
by LVE

Comment:
Nice capture and I like the way the shadows of the reeds describe the curvature of the bird's body, but the lighting puzzles me. If you took this at night then it is an amazing job color balancing, if this was taken by daylight then you burned the edges so much that the pool of remaining light is as much of a feature of the shot as the bird. Either way it detracts form the elegant form of tthe bird.

Fly By
by kloutit

Comment:
wow, great capture, the colors of the duck's wing really is set off by the lilly pads. Good focus and DOF. i wouls have liked to see him a bit less cramped up in the corner on the framing, but you get what you get with birds on the wing and this one is a honey. Top ten.

Arabian Flights
by scalvert

Comment:
I though you might do well in this challenge, and you did yourself proud, another brilliant setup. The wrinkle in the carpet is a nice touch, and I particularly like the pink plastic dress up shoes, it adds that extra touch of "let's pretend".

For the common good we need to get anyone who would vote this shot a 1 out of the gene pool.

Land of the Buck
by AlexSaberi

Comment:
Ill bet you a buck this ribbons. nice job witht the colors, it must have been tempting to really push the color to sell this, but I think you understated it just enough, The profile of the elk is just wonderfull with a dramatic sense of a leader and his followers.

Buzz Off Birdie!
by nidici

Comment:
Beautifully capture, well framed and you caught some rich light here. The backround looks a bit muddy and uniform, like an abuse of the highlights and shadows tool, which knocks it down a bit, but it is still a top five.

THE BIRDS!
by melismatica

Comment:
A rich and lovely abstraction, witht the burst of color in the bottom left providing a textural anchor to the cool blur of motion. This is one of my top three, just a lovely peice.

Get Off My Back
by yakatme

Comment:
Yup this is the one, my pick for the top spot. The ivory of the croc and the green of the alge work like magic, witht he strong diagonal of the snout working well with the crop: good DOF provides plenty of detail on the subject while minimising distractions in the backround. It might have benfited by a bit darker blacks to bring up the pop factor, but this is the best of the crop.