Steve Joined a Monastery
by idnic

Comment:
Wow... Wellll... that is a possibility... a slim one, but a possibility. Maybe if I would have prayed I would have got back quicker. LOL!
Very nice sepia image. Great texture and the open door helps it fit the challenge well. Like the framing and perspective. Great job - Steve

Lost in.....
by russi

Comment:
Great image. Subject placement is good. Making him small with respect to the rest of the frame is a good visual representation of the vastness of nature compared to us humans. The stark desolation of the this scene contributes to the overall feeling. This image fits the challenge topic well and matches the feelings I had much of the time I was alone. Great capture. - Steve

Hello ma baby, hello ma honey, hello ma rag time gal. Send a kiss to Steve Davidson by wire....
by tolovemoon

Comment:
Ahhhhh... finally... Someone captures the real Steve. Ladies of DPC... kiss the "lost" frog and turn him back into a handsome prince that he longs to be. But do it fast before you notice he is a dud! LOL! (Note: All kisses will be accepted, no questions asked) - Steve

With Carmen Sandiego in Malibu?
by massmediakid31

Comment:
Hanging out in Malibu with Carmen Electra sounds like even more fun. I'll have to try that next time I get lost. ;)
The image composition is generally good and showing the ocean perspective from the appreciative gaze of the couple works well. Like the backlighting as well.
The ocean waves immediately in front of the couple is slightly overexposed and the horizon is not quite level. The sky color looks different to me, but maybe it is time for me to recalibrate my monitor.
It should not be surprising to know that I dreamed about the ocean and other bodies of water (and other bodies for that matter) while stranded in the blazing desert sun. You captured my thinking well. - Steve

~stdavidsongnome~
by oOWonderBreadOo

Comment:
Like this concept. The nature photographer bound together with nature. Flowers are a favorite subject for me so this fits well. Overall you did a super job with the flower in front of the face and simulating the background blur. There appears to be some yellow color bleeding remaining on top in front of the "lost photographer's" head but a little additional cloning takes care of that. A bit more 'cloning' and 'blur' fixes that up just fine.
When out taking pictures I often feel like I'm communing with nature. This image captures that feeling well. - Steve

Found..........By the Ripples of Life.
by BrianR

Comment:
Well done metaphorical imagery. Nice bright primary colors and the way you did the ripples is just right. Like the way there is no ripple in the middle where the swans are. This should score well.
Btw, does the second swan represent a girl swan that will sweep me off my feet and make my life complete? ;) - Steve

Engineering a train!
by drydoc

Comment:
Overall this is a well composed image. It is about the best angle you could get for the lighting conditions. This image has great potential.
The lighting angle still leaves some shadows on the left side of the train and engineer's face but some highlighting can correct that. You might consider widening the crop to include the sign totally withing the frame. Also consider additional highlighting to add interest to the surrounding vegetation.
Some folks will have trouble connecting this to the challenge topic, but not me. Out in the desert I was engineering a different kind of train and am glad I made it back to the station all in one piece. :) - Steve

Everyone should take time to Stop and Smell the Roses.....at least for 19 days!
by dassilem

Comment:
Yeah... yeah... that is what I was doing. Smelling the roses. Yup, that was it all right. :)
The way you included the image of the "lost photographer" from the side and behind the foreground rosebud was nicely done. You composed the image well.
Challenges like this gives us a chance to do blends like that of the face with the flowers. DPC does not often provide those opportunities and we need to practice those things in order to make them look natural.
This looks like a composite, but I thought that was not allowed for the challenge. I'm curious to know how you accomplished it. Anyway, in a strait composite I would have brought in the whole face image in, pasted it into its own layer, rotated it to be correct and then used a mask to block out upwanted background as a non-destructive editing technique. That makes it easy to adjust later for the few remaining spots around the far eyebrow and a couple other small places where there is still a bit to much white that you missed. They can be taken care of with cloning too but the non-destructive method is better since it lets you bring back things you cut out and is easier to recover with.
If you have Photoshop you can further apply its lighting perspective feature to match the angle of lighting with the flowers on the face layer and with a little brightness, maybe a little sharpness matching and some slight color correction you can make an exact match with the flowers that will fool anyone. - Steve

Abstracacti
by xXxscarletxXx

Comment:
Good off-centered placement of the main cactus. Nicely soft focused background. It looks a little overexposed on the bottom center but the image is very good overall.
Ah, yes.. I got very familiar with thorny cactus spines like these during my desert experience. Practically every time I sat down I found new ones I did not know were there and got them poked into various parts of my anatomy. Some were more difficult, painful and perhaps amusing to remove than others. Would have made for great video. :) - Steve

Still Night
by madcrabber

Comment:
This night shot looks good as black and white. Portrait orientation captures the full boat riggings and its reflection in the water nicely. Well composed.
When I was missing the nights were absolutely silent... especially when there was no breeze. In our 'civilized' world we are bombarded with noise all the time. It is nice to experience absolute silence.
While lost the nightime quiet was occasionally interrupted by coyotes howling. They would suddenly start howling, for no apparent reason, and continue to do so for about 2 minutes and then go totally silent again. There would be 20-30 of them yelping into the night all at once and makng lots of noise. Coyotes are constantly on the move and travel in loose hunting groups often spread over a faily wide area. It was disconcerting when I was inside the perimiter of a group when they started to howl because they would literally be surrounding me. They move very quietly and I never knew they were nearby unless they happened to started howling. Coyotes avoid people so there was never a problem for me. - Steve