Sensual Pepper
by ladpupmoe

Comment:
Powerful and evocative. The sensual, sculptural curves that are so suggestive of any number of body parts. Creative ambiguity. And lounging on that towel.
Personal favorite of the challenge.

On the sunny side of the street
by Paul

Comment:
Less a spot than part of a scene, but still wonderful. Such soft, hazy, blunted light can fill one, or at least me, with abundance and possibility. The street becomes a river, washing about in the hinterlands, casting glimmers off the prominences. The shadowed surroundings are deep and rich. Altogether stirring.
Personal co-favorite of the challenge.

Radiance
by roz

Comment:
Another marvelous image. You've shown the butterfly as the sun or moon, flowers as stars. Almost seems you can do no wrong. Love the soft green of the eye, kind of echoed in the bokeh. Many of your images are dramatic. This is dreamy.
Personal co-favorite of the challenge.

In the Garden
by GinaRothfels

Comment:
The cardinal's awkward-looking pose is endearingly intimate. Is that a palm frond he's on? Interesting contrasts and lines. Lovely textures and tones. Black and white discards the color, though I can feel it nosing through, back to front.
Fine image.

Fish Market Still Life
by nam

Comment:
I really like this quirky still life. First off, it takes confidence to gather together fish on ice and yellow cheese, set them this way and that, handsomely graphic and kind of in your face. There's mystery here, what does it mean it insists. Is it a riddle, an in joke, a secret message? Probably art for its own sake, which isn't a great leap. Are the fish real? The cheese? The ice? I like how the unshadowed areas of the fish glimmer. Bold, interesting and quietly surreal.

A Creek Runs Through It
by grahamgator

Comment:
Gentle, aglow and beautifully lit, like one of J.M.W. Turner's bucolic paintings. So, painterly. Fine composition. It's amazing how several small birds, small in the distance, help balance the whole. Can make one wonder, haven't I seen this in a museum? Sumptuous.

The ladder
by Neat

Comment:
Wonderfully imagined and put together. Stark and lush all at once. Gently surreal. Works so well in black and white. Wuthering heights, indeed.
An additional co-second favorite.

Ready
by LevT

Comment:
The man standing before the staircase visually anchors the image. But, really, it's about the lines, symmetry and all that quilt of gray. Playful and optically dodgy.
Very fine.

Heatwave with grasshopper
by roz

Comment:
Wonderful study of this grasshopper in its environment. Lovingly photographed. The bokeh is amazing. Off-center, in my opinion, might have worked better.
Beautiful.

The desert world
by ELLIPS

Comment:
Seemingly born for black and white imagery. The textures and contrast are a treat for the eyes. The shapes and contours are almost dizzying to behold.
Would have bumped one if there were no tracks.
Still, co-second favorite of the challenge.