Blue Fire
by charliebaker

Comment:
The color gradient is nice, but noisy. And how do I know this is fire? I'm generally a fan of macro and abstract, but I honestly can't tell that this is a blue flame. Such doubt will kill your score every time.

Ying & Yang the Balance of Nature
by sherpet

Comment:
Hi Sherpet.. I wanted to tell you that your plant photos are beautiful. I do think that repetition plays a part in how things score, but not as much as you think with this one in particular. There's a lot of pattern and rhythm in this photo, which don't really gel with the zen no-mind. If the composition seemed less orderly and a little more random, it might have done better. It doesn't make it any less beautiful, just perhaps not quite the right fit for this particular challenge, which was a challenging and frustrating one in which to participate and vote since everyone has such different concepts of what zen means and all of them correct. Don't stop taking photos, k?

The Egg!
by Cheerz

Comment:
Two things immediately leap out at me:

(1) I would like to see a sharper line at the egg's edge where it meets the shadow/
(2) Take advantage of the full 640x640 allowance. Not doing so tends to get voted down around here, probably because it indicates a lack of knowledge on how to use your photo editing software? I'm guessing at the reason, but especially on a black and white photo, with very little color data to inflate your file size, there was no reason that a 640x640 couldn't be saved at 100% using Save for Web.

The Trek
by Cutter

Comment:
You continue to disgust me with your success, my friend. ;)

Gold Bless You
by labuds

Comment:
Che bella. Michaelangelo would be proud.

The Alien in my Garden
by Gunnsi

Comment:
Hi Gunnar -

I like this treatment better than the more straightforward Flowers entry. There seems to be better clarity. Though I'm sure most voters don't know how this could be a completely unedited shot - myself included.

The Outsider
by Gunnsi

Comment:
Hi Gunnar-

I think this suffered from being a mediocre shot of a mostly boring composition in a challenge oversaturated with flowers. To do well here a composition really had to stand out. The focus here is too soft, the light is too white, and there isn't much of interest in the composition. Generally, you want a macro shot like this to be as clear as possible throughout the entire photo. Depth of field actually works against macros most of the time. Set your aperature as high as it will go and try a more golden time of day, like sunrise or sunset.

Been there, done that!
by Gunnsi

Comment:
Hi Gunnar-

I think levyj413 nailed it - there isn't much here that's taking advantage of perspective to make a dramatic photo. The composition doesn't seem to have much 3-dimensionality to it. I'm not sure why the hiker was included in the composition. In my opinion including the hiker actually works against the photo, makes it looks much more like a quick snapshot rather than a perspective landscape.

Summit
by yanko

Comment:
Hi Richard-

Straight out of Gotham! Nice! Again, difficult to critique higher scoring photos like this. Excellent perspective and clarity, and the grungy look is a nice touch.

Flower Power
by yanko

Comment:
Hi Richard-

It's difficult to critique this once since it placed so well. The only fault I can find is that the lightbulb shot has now moved into the realm of DPC cliche. Time to start a new trend!