Sand Bath Terminus With Gnats
by lynnesite

Comment:
Ahhh, found it! I LOVE this one! Excellent use of light. Just right.

Dead Calm
by GIS_boy

Comment:
Just my opinion, but the heavy black bars at top/bottom really take away from the light quality of the image!

Banff Leaves
by spockling

Comment:
Nice light!

The Pinnacle
by MAK

Comment:
Hehe, I know this one! Mac, how are you? Good entry :)

Fly Free
by nibbles

Comment:
I think I would like this one a little better if the tip of the wing weren't clipped. Beautiful colour though.

On his own
by Melethia

Comment:
Hey, Deb, just saw this! Congratulations, beautiful image. You're good :)

A Bugs Life
by Someamateur

Comment:
Greetings!

Life was a difficult challenge. This definitely shows something alive, but it doesn't show it in such a way that "life" is the first thing anyone who looks at this thinks of.

Your fiance made this image? Do you realize that images entered to challenges here need to be made by you, not by someone else? :)

About the picture:

It's a good attempt at a closeup (macro), but you are including too much in the frame for it to be effective. You have the worm, the flower, the buds, the stem. Too much information. It might be better to get a whole lot closer and concentrate on one of these only, for example, the worm.

The focus is off. Nothing seems to be really sharp in the picture, and at the same time, nothing is really thrown out of focus for effect. Did you use a tripod or some other support to make this? Use a larger F number (smaller aperture), to get a better area of sharpness. Or, if sticking to a large aperture, make absolutely sure that the important part of the picture is in focus, clear as a bell.

The colours are good, although you could experiment with backgrounds other than the plain brown used here.

I hope this helps.

Survival of the 'wet'est
by thekfactor

Comment:
Greetings.

A difficult challenge, "Life". You have a good idea for it. However, the execution lets this down. There is nothing really in focus in the image, although to the middle of the image things are bit better in focus than towards the edges. In my view, it would have been much better to have something in focus here, in particular, the bean with the sprout, to make it the centre of attention. It also might have been good to arrange the setting a bit differently, not so centred, not just a bunch of beans next to each other in a small group. I even wonder if photographing just the one sprouted bean, maybe somehow including some dirt or some context to reinforce the idea of life sprouting and starting to grow, wouldn't work well. The slightly pink/purplish tones of the background also do not seem to enhance the green of the beans/sprout - it might be worth experimenting with different backgrounds, for example, totally white or black.

I hope this helps.

sweep
by ursula

Comment:

Originally posted by surfinbird: Thought this was the winner. How did you do it?

Obviously not well enough, going by the many votes of 1 and 2 :)

It's a backlit closeup (macro lens), sunlight, handheld. It's turned 180 degrees. Same seeds that I've been using for a couple years for these pictures.

sweep
by ursula

Comment:

Originally posted by ellamay: Another stunning Ursula image. Congrats! Merry Christmas Ursula!

Lynn! Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family too!!!! Come to see us in the Kootenays some time :)