Beetle Mania
by digifotojo

Comment:
I hate to be the hyper mega anal insect guy, but these are not beetles, strictly speaking. In any case, you've got an interesting find with them all so tightly clustered. There seems to be some oddness in the editing though, with strange multi colored bands on the left side in the middle.

Maggots
by whiterook

Comment:
lol
Awesome. I appreciate the divergent path on insects. Curious as to where you stumbled upon such a bumper crop of maggots.

My friends call me Harry
by glad2badad

Comment:
Great detail but I find the positioning and composition lacking.

fly dragonfly
by mitalapo

Comment:
Dragonflies are just the most frustrating size for macro, but this is quite an interesting take on things. I'd like a little more DoF, so we'd have the face in focus as well, but this is interesting. The background foliage on the left side of the image could've been toned down some too, as it's rather distracting with the large blades of grass, but this is an interesting direction to take the shot.

Just by the shirttail
by moondog

Comment:
Very harsh lighting that could have been helped a bit by PP. I'd like to see a bit lower perspective, as well.

Spartans Prepare For Battle
by MarkB

Comment:
The background is unnaturally blurred and your masking needs to be more nuanced and complete. Subjects at a given distance must be rendered appropriately or your mask is readily apparent. Also, the gaussian blur applied to the background gives the appearance of very poor bokeh. Not positive on the order of your steps, but if you were to mask and blur the background initially, before the sharpness and contrast tweaks that your did on the rest of your subject matter, you likely would've created a more nuanced background with less harshness, but this could also be due to shooting with a slower lens.

untitled
by Dr.Confuser

Comment:
I very much enjoy the immensity created here. You seem to have some haloing of sorts on the boat, as though a small region around the boat is perhaps not converted to monotone?

...loves me not...
by TonyT

Comment:
Technical excellence, but an oft repeated subject matter with little variation.

backlit
by pederlol

Comment:
Interesting. Of all the photos, none gave me pause but this. Simple, intriguing, poignant. It allows the viewer to create the story, allowing us to connect on whatever level and means we feel most appropriate and meaningful. Well done.

Terminal torment
by Garry

Comment:
Easily the best in this challenge so far as this type of shot goes. Would've much rather preferred dof be carried through the subject or at least to have been critically sharp on the subject's face instead of his left wrist.