Prickly Pear
by goodtempo

Comment:
challenge met. nice composition, it looks as if the fruit (?) is holding up the leaf above it. the long shadows work well here because i always associate cacti with hot climates and expect the sun to be beating down. i wonder what made you go for the sepia tones. possibly the colors in the background. w/out actually seeing it i can't say i'd prefer color, but i'm wondering whether i would...

Wailin' the Blues
by KarenB

Comment:
very cool idea & shot! :)

Skipping Stones
by Swashbuckler

Comment:
great capture ... it was worth the numbers of tries. i like the composition a lot. :)

Unpruned melody
by Jak

Comment:
challenge met. you have picked a nice combination of busy twigs and also some empty space to frame the bird, i like that. also like that you have a nicely colored sky and that you caught the bird looking to the side. i don't like the processing you did to the photo so much, there's a slight "halo" around everything that suggests to me that maybe you sharpened the image just a tad too much.

Beavers Woodworking
by HBunch

Comment:
challenge met. nice find for the challenge. i like the placement of the tree in the overall frame, and the woodchips on the ground. the thing i like the least is the bland sky. i know you can't control that, but i wonder what this photo would look like cropped into a square (taking the sky off and maybe just a tad off the bottom, too). format.

Power of Nature_Cloudscape2
by smellyfish1002

Comment:
challenge -- met
composition -- good
technical -- nice range between light and dark, w/out blowouts or loosing detail.
overall impression -- i like clouds, and i appreciate the variety in this photo.

Chrysalis Fungi
by amonteforte

Comment:
challenge -- met
composition -- i like how the tree is a bit off-centered and then offset by that large purple leaf.
technical -- focus is nice, but the whole photo is a little, well, grainy is not the right word, but shows signs of oversharpening, especially in the background.
overall impression -- isolated the tree and leaf fairly well in what looks like a busy and crowded environment. some post-processing issues.

Summer Home
by boyte1

Comment:
challenge -- met
composition -- good positioning of the nest in the frame. i like that branch to the left that seems to be coming out at the viewer and gives the photo a good feeling of depth.
technical -- just a few blown out hightlights where the sunlight hit the surrounding branches, but not too distracting. nice focus and sharpness.
overall impression -- good photo of a not overwhelmingly interesting (to me) subject.

Cliff Hangers
by Onie

Comment:
challenge -- met
composition -- the long format really works well here, so does b&w. nice title, too.
technical -- somehow this doesn't look as crisp and clear to me as i would expect, but i am at a loss whether that's the photo or post-processing. sorry.
overall impression -- love the idea and composition, not so sure about the technical aspects of it all.

Frozen in the Mud
by inspzil

Comment:
challenge -- met
composition -- i like how you closely cropped in on the subject
technical -- hard to see what i'm looking at because there's not much tonal/color range and no easily distinguishable borders
overall impression -- this one actually works better in the thumbnail. i'm intrigued by the photo a lot and hope you put some more descriptions with it that i can read on monday. however, as a photo, i wish it was a little more obvious what i'm looking at. i have no idea if that was possible or not.