Busy Architecture
by KarenNfld

Comment:
Pretty amazing shot & location! Congrats on your blue!

Grand Falls
by jrod867

Comment:
Really a beautiful location & shot - congrats on your ribbon!

Water Balloon Explosion
by NstiG8tr

Comment:
Great job - congrats on your 2nd place!

Two Windows
by bbright

Comment:
Wow... Congratulations on your well-deserved blue! :-)

Buddha in White
by ohthatguyagain

Comment:
*Greetings from the Critique Club*

First let me say congratulations on joining DPC - I hope you enjoy your stay here as much as I have!

Composition
I think your composition here is actually pretty strong. The close crop works well and I like the lines and curves the buddha creates.

Focus
Almost, but not quite sharp. I think this probably hurt your score. A soft focus can often add to the impact of an image, but not sure it added here.

Challenge Relativity
I think this probably hurt your score most. Your background is not quite white. Yes, it's light colored, but most of the entries were stark WHITE. Also, the buddha, while light ivory toned, has some very dark shadowed areas. You'll notice that most of the higher scoring entries also had very few (if any) dark areas at all in their shots.

Overall
I think this is actually a pretty good photograph, so don't let the score discourage you. As I said, I like the composition, and the soft focus could work. The lines are good and I like the crop. The lack of obvious ties to the challenge were an obvious killer to your score (because technically, as I said, this is not a bad shot).

This is your first challenge, so I look forward to seeing more of your work. Please feel free to PM me if there's anything you think I might be able to help you out with - I'd be more than happy to do so. Keep on shooting!

Just my 2 cents...

Jimmy

flooded beauty
by echo54

Comment:
Really unique take on an old theme. Beautiful.

Uh, How'd you get up here?
by mystical_princess

Comment:
Great capture! A tad overexposed, but the centered composition works for me and I like the deep rich green tones of the background. Good work!

Bambi
by dsherwin

Comment:
This is absolutely incredible! Never seen an animal like this before. Beautiful focus & composition. Love it!

God's daily reminder2
by danica22

Comment:
Beautiful... I agree with Rikki some though - maybe shift it a little more to the right? Still, a great shot as is. :-)

Around the garden
by dsherwin

Comment:
Looks like a beautiful setting - great composition with nice leading lines. The lighting is pretty harsh though, causing all the colors to be washed out. I would probably try burning them and bumping up the color sat & playing with contrast to minimize some of the glare. Great locale & capture though.