Island Holiday
by fldave

Comment:
In sunset, this would be a 6 or 7. In sand? Not so much.

On the Waterfront
by Nobody

Comment:
The 18-55mm kit lens is a true performer. Seriously.

Where Sand Is Born.
by jomari

Comment:
Actually, if you want to be entirely accurate, sediment is "born" in all the rivers of the land and carried to the ocean, where it is then deposited around the beaches of the world. The ocean refines it more, certainly, but it's not really the birth-place ;)

Having said that, it's not like it's a score-changing thing, but the fact that there is so very little sand and that your photo relies on the landscape at large for its impact is.

Kick up a Storm
by bobonacus

Comment:
I guessed 5.5 on mine, and got a 5.1, so I think maybe next free study we should guess a little lower eh? hehe

Watercolours
by TomCubis

Comment:
Something had drawn his attention that day. As he passed the tiny pond, more a slough than a solid body of water, something had flashed and caught his eye.

He stopped, the pleasant walk in this marsh suddenly disrupted, and with a tilt of his head looked into the water where he thought he had seen whatever it is he thought he had seen.

For a moment, there was nothing, and he was about to pass it off as a trick of light when, *flash*, there it was once more. Without much of a thought, he suddenly grabbed a stick, and had anyone been with them, they surely would have noticed the look on his face and perhaps tried to stop him. His face showed a goofy kind of grin, but went suddenly devoid of life. A kind of paradoxical expression, but there it was. Slowly, he inched towards the water's edge, leaned down, and poked the stick towards the area where that flash had been. That amazing flash. That wonderful, wonderful flash.

Then, with no warning and no sound other than a quick escape of a whisper as the air rushed in to fill the spot he had been, he was gone. Something, there under the water, had seized that stick, and in less than a half a second he was gone, pulled in with it, with only the growing rippling of the surface to show that anything had been there.

Time then began to move on, and the birds resumed their singing, and the breeze resumed the rustling of the grasses, and he was never heard from again.

Cooperation
by jerowe

Comment:
He looked at her, and he sighed, and he wondered how he ever wanted one of these. He'd begged for a baby sister. Tommy had had one and he loved her so, and at first it had been really great.

He had held her and hugged her and kissed her and she mostly just slept and looked cute and everyone told him what a great big brother he was.

He looked at her, and he sighed. Why couldn't she just be happy? This was taking too long and he wanted to play Wii, and she just.. wouldn't.. stop.

He wondered why he ever wanted one of these.

Another Year Over
by rinac

Comment:
Some days, when the sun was finally disappearing, and the breeze blew just so, and the waves gently crashed upon the shore, some days he would appear.

Only for a moment, always silent, never seeming to understand that he was there, that he existed, or that there was anything or anyone there but himself and the sea.

He had disappeared so many years before. He had gone for a stroll, as he had every day, along his favorite stretch of beach. He had said goodbye, and put on his hat, and had never come home again.

Now, should you find yourself there, when the end of the day was just so, he would appear. He would stand there and stare out over the sea, and as the last of the golden light would turn to the deep azure of the twilight, he would fade.

If you listened very carefully, perhaps, you would hear what could be a soft and almost silent sigh go out across the water as the form disappeared, and your heart would open and your soul would weep, and you would never forget that encounter.

Shoebill
by andrewt

Comment:
He had been teased endlessly. For most of his school life, it was Big Bill Billy (and wasn't that an unfortunate name his parents had given him), and Billy the Billy Beak, among countless others. Relentless they were, the other children. Relentless and cruel. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and Billy had absorbed it all.

Had absorbed it all until today. He stood there, watching the children exit the school, and his eyes narrowed, and a grin that could wilt a rose grew on his face...

... and his revenge became infamous.

ageless
by tate

Comment:
He hadn't been feeling good. A little cough, a little listlessness, he didn't feel like nursing much. His toys didn't interest him, playing peekaboo just wasn't funny today, and he felt pretty warm.

So when he heard his mom say it was time to take his temperature, he wasn't really sure what that meant. Then, she lay him over her lap, undressed him, and...

His head snapped up and his eyes went wide as one of the more humiliating horrors of babydom was perpetrated upon him and he was suddenly initiated into what "taking a temperature" meant, and one aspect of his innocence was forever tainted.

A Moment in Time
by TCGuru

Comment:
A tilt of the head and a gaze to the sky,
a head full of wonder and a dream in her eye.
A smile on her face and one wonders why,
what goes on in the mind of a child?

A shrug very shyly, a toss of the hair,
a kiss on your cheek she will bashfully share.
A hug and a cuddle and a touch full of care,
what a lot for the heart of a child.

The loss of a pet that was her pride and her joy,
a breaking of what was her favorite toy.
Getting in trouble for kissing a boy,
what a weight in the soul of a child.

The learning and growing and laughing and play,
the changes that happen on every foray,
The happy and sad, which one for today?
this is the life of a child.