Amber Gaze
by Nikolai1024

Comment:
This was your Nikolai?!? I'm cruising through the entries to find out where some of the competition finished. This was one of the shots that really had me concerned. I believed that it was going to edge my entry out and I am very surprised that it didn't finish in the top 5. Fantastic shot!

Dinner Time at the Old Oak Tree
by Gatorguy

Comment:
Great capture of a not so common scene. Congratulations on the ribbon.

Northern Cardinal
by timfythetoo

Comment:
You ended up a lot closer to at the finish than what you thought. We must have been neck and neck the whole time. Great detail and the red...WOW! Very nice. Congratulations on the matching red ribbon.

Riding the Wave
by rjkstesch

Comment:
Nice composition. It would be cool to see the original image. Could you post it? I am just curious about how much was composed in the camera versus cropping.

Message edited by author 2008-01-28 22:06:21.

Riding the Wave
by rjkstesch

Comment:
Interesting title ;) Congratulations on an outstading finish out of all the entries.

Message edited by author 2008-01-28 00:54:30.

49er's vs Buccaneeers - December 23, 2007
by DelRioPhoto

Comment:
It looks like you were right there in the action. The next shot could very well be of the sky with an elbow in the corner of the picture.

49er's vs Buccaneeers - December 23, 2007
by DelRioPhoto

Comment:
Great focus, composition, and timing. I wonder if you were set on burst mode or if your timing on the shutter release is just perfect.

Bear Mtn. 01
by The_Dentist

Comment:
Nice foreground bokeh. Might have done well in that challenge.

Tribute to Yakatme's "Rainforest"
by Hipychik

Comment:
In response to your comment "...but I hope he likes it!", I have to say that I absolutely LOVE IT!!! I am honored and very flattered that you chose Rainforest to pay tribute to. Thank you.

No, you weren't able to find a leaf with any red in it, but the detail that you got in the leaf structure is amazingly good and has a 3D look to it. It seems that you were actually able to get some shadows around the veins of the leaf.

Everything, from the position of the frog, the scale of the frog versus the leaf, the crop around the leaf so that the veins at the top exit the image at almost the exact same place as my crop, to even the border around the image has been very well recreated. You definitely took some time to pay attention to the details and recreate them here. edit to add---> I just noticed that you even found the original frog silhouette. I thought that you probably printed out Rainforest and cut out the frog from that. But no, the silhouette was cut out in a slightly different way and I can tell that it was as difficult for you as it was for me making clean cuts around the small details.

I am wondering if it was difficult to pull this off since it took me so many attempts and many retakes to overcome the various problems that I encountered, or were you able to accomplish this detailed reproduction easily by following my comments as to how I was finally able to make it? Did you find an easier way of cutting out the frog? What was your setup and did you also tape the leaf to glass for the backlighting? It would be very interesting to hear your account of how you created this great image.

Again, very nicely done with so much attention paid to the details of the original. It would have been nice to see this on the front page again but a top 5 finsh is a great accomplishment. Thank you for paying tribute to one of my images.

Message edited by author 2007-09-24 09:48:18.

Still Life with Peaches
by MAK

Comment:
Absolutely awesome arrangement! This entry is the epitome of still life captured in a photograph. You obviously took the challenge description and ran with it, puttiing to good use the research and all that you have learned from your artist friend. Generally speaking, I have never cared much for still life paintings, but your shot is a "painting like" image that has kept me lingering for awhile. Outstanding job. Congratulations on your 4th place finish.