An Old Friend Still Watches
by thomaspeople

Comment:
This is a great photo, but appears to be let down by the fact that you are saving the image with too much compression. This has introduced artefacts around some of the edges. If you're interested, there's an article in the tutorial section on how to use Photoshop to prepare images and it covers saving jpeg files to make the most of the 150k limit available to us. Even though you might not be using Photoshop, similar actions are available in other (some even free) image editing applications.

But now for some comments on the photo:

I think that you have picked a very interesting subject, which many people may never have seen before. This should do well in this challenge. The lighting of the subject is very good - with no obvious bright or distracting hightlights. The background colour compliments your subject well. Despite the jpeg artifacts I mentioned earlier, I think that this image still holds up extremely well against the rest of the competition.

Good luck!

Golden Light Sutra
by pawdrix

Comment:
The dark vertical bar in the background is a bit of a distraction. Cropping that out would make this great photo absolutely awesome. Lighting looks perfect and the bronze hues really jump out at you. Well done.

Reliable
by blanceric

Comment:
Too much USM - a Halo is clearly visible around the character. Good composition and exposure & focus are spot on.

Stealing the sun
by thelucas

Comment:
One word - 'wow'.

Midnight
by gloda

Comment:
Finally a great image depicting how someone feels about the darkness. I like the movement of the hair - it adds a dynamic element to an otherwise still image.

Before the Storm
by admart01

Comment:
It's definitely a great photo, but I feel that it relies too heavily on the title to show a connection to the challenge. Lovely blue hues here.

Deadwood
by marvin

Comment:
Great eye-popping colour & focus.

Neighbours envy
by maessenger

Comment:
It looks like it was raining a bit when the photo was taken - but it's hard to tell. It appears that the image was saved with a relatively high compression setting, which has resulted in some jpeg-artifacts - especially in the top-left corner. I would suggest using a higher quality setting when saving your next image to make sure your photos are presented with the high quality they deserve.

Something Watches
by dave2119

Comment:
Composition could have been improved by cropping out the red areas of the photo. The eyes are a lovely colour and appear to be nicely in focus. They really pop out of the image to grab your attention. There is a certain amount of low-level noise in the black areas which you might have been able to recover with careful use of levels/curves to make the 'almost-black' completely black. Composition is great with the eyes placed nicely off-center.

Solitary
by Keith Maniac

Comment:
Very imaginative choice of subject. Good use of negative space to add a sense of isolation.