IMG_9709.jpg
by strangeghost

Comment:
Very nice! I suggest cropping away the right 1/5 part, then you have a more consistent pattern and all burning colors. And for derivatives, look closely at the left side for interesting patterns you can isolate in an extract.

Telluride Nothing Festival
by mrorange002

Comment:
What a hoot! Love to ride a bike, but I can't imagine how bad it would feel to sit on a bike seat naked. The only thing worse I can think of is being the second one to sit on the same seat naked ;)

Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth
by Rikki

Comment:
Very cool!

The Amazing Woodies!
by CEJ

Comment:
There you go--a woody shot that did well! And so well done.

And now we're all looking at your profile... ;)

"back to that same old place, Sweet Home Chicago"
by fotodude

Comment:
Beautiful night shot of "my town" (well, I never lived there, but I was born there at Michael Reese--I grew up in Gary, Indiana). I am mixed about the tilt, I really like the dynamic it adds, but it draws attention to itself too, perhaps because it's not tilted enough to say: this is purposefully tilted (though I am sure it was).

Overall, a great night city scene: hope you have a big version of this hanging on your wall!

(as seen by) The Sky's Tears
by fotodude

Comment:
You can't be far from a ribbon with shots like these! Great work.

A Day in the Life
by Tuckersmom

Comment:
Congratulations! Lovely shot.

PAD-09-treespin.jpg
by Artan

Comment:
Wow, excellent results too! Good colors and contol, and a nice, stable tree shadow to anchor the DPC viewer.

Blue or Brown ?
by gaurawa

Comment:
Were you really trying for a brown. If so, I'm embarrassed to say I like this :(

If not, perhaps it got punished for being abstract, or perhaps too many people looked for "something" besides color in the shot. But the beautiful continuous tones and combinations in the color are very nice. Perhaps a crop on the left to making it close to square, with the two colors playing against each other and combining in the bottom right quadrant might have been a bit compositionally stronger. (Still may not have done well in this crowd, but a good pic anyway.)

Where Juan Valdez Meets Benjamin Franklin
by Art Roflmao

Comment:
Very good idea! Sharp wit and focus.

I think overall this is a very good image. I think you were penalized for having a woody ;)

Compositionally, however, I think this could have been a little stronger. I'm not fixated on the rule of thirds, but this image could be balanced better by using it. My first thought is that the paper goods on the left weren't needed and don't provide compositional balance, and you could have thus cropped on that side and tried to get woody in the sweet spot--right now he and the coffee maker are too close to center.

Second, I think the brown/dark background makes the beans on the left less effective. If I were to imagine arranging the scene, I might have done the following (but realize this is not easy to previsualize so I may be totally off base): ditch the paper cups on the right, put the beans there in a more prominent position, shifting the maker left, and balancing the maker on the left with the beans on the right. Put in a very nice expresso cup, either filled with steaming coffee or money. The latter idea has me thinking a little bit: to make a statement about coffee costs, the jar isn't really "unambiguous" because it is associated with tips, not the cost of coffee. So maybe the coffee cup idea filled with money, or some foreground with money and coffee somehow intermingled in either a natural or artistic statement way.

Alternate title: Hey buddy, can I have $5 for a cup of coffee? ;)