Day and Night
by spiritualspatula

Comment:
This one is beautifully rendered, with the deep foreground shadows fully detailed and expressed. For my tastes it's a little oversharpened, and the sky's a little too dark & even. I realize you had to take what you were given with the sky, but keeping it overall half a zone lighter then throwing a gradient in from the top would have given a little depth to the sky and made the imkage a bit more powerful, I think. Still, very nice work.

Taconic Cascade
by molinski4611

Comment:
This is one of the better renderings of snow/ice in the challenge, and that's one of the most difficult things to do well in post processing. The more so when you have deep shadows to contend with. Nice job!

Motorcycle Diary
by Germaine

Comment:
For some reason I'm thinking "Hans Arp" when I view this... Oddly compelling.

(Yah, I just googled him in Google Images, now I know why I was thinking that; try it yourself...)

The Sounds Of Silence
by pawdrix

Comment:
A new era for YOU, that's for sure! Whip it out and let it shout, Steve!

Pip
by Retroesque

Comment:
Oh, talk about isolating your SUBJECT! This is magnificent.

Rocky Point
by hihosilver

Comment:
Very nice zone system work, holding detail in the shadows and the bright areas both.

Vermillion
by Len Scap

Comment:
I'm really bothered by the fact that this image is leaning noticeably to the right. It could be significantly improved by squaring it up.

Window 9.0
by drydoc

Comment:
Of all the images entered in this challenge, this is by FAR the purest expression of Zone System. The image could be used in a textbook to illustrate ZS principles. You also have EXCELLENT raking light, and consequently great richness of textural detail. The details visible through the window, in particular, are absolutely spot-on in showing the concept of bringing out information from the deep shadows. In other words, from a technical perspective you have absolutely nailed what Ansel was about.

Aesthetically, the image is not so spot-on. It's well-composed and well executed, but it doesn't carry a lot of emotive power. Not every image has to BE emotive, of course, but still it's a missing element. I would not expect this image to ribbon, but if it doesn't do very well I'll be quite disappointed.

"Only in silent shadows and in dreams"
by dahkota

Comment:
May be the first time I've seen Wallace Stevens quoted in a DPC title, though I almost used "casual flocks of pigeons make / ambiguous undulations as they sink / downward to darkness on extended wing" once, but it was too long and anyway I entered a different image :-)

The detail here is nice, the light's pretty blah though... I do like churches & graveyards though, and my variation of this motif tookm a top-10 in the first AA challenge.

At the summit I pause to lose my breath
by Nocturnal_Delusion

Comment:
note to self: add comment later