Demands respect
by Tammster

Comment:
Grand detail, focus and bokeh in this. Color is a little muted, which probably got it dinged in voting. Congrats on a good opportunity to get close to the eagle like this.

Jump Shot
by idnic

Comment:
Delightful!~ !
Wish them well about the tour of duty for me too.

Jenne's Farm
by Denise

Comment:
This is an idyllic looking place. It's a beautiful shot, and great processing brings out the best in it.

Wetland Cypress
by tfarrell23

Comment:
I like this. It looks a lot like the edge of the Florida Everglades. The sky has a lot to do with how this sort of shot works, and this is a good one.

Mangroves at Sunset
by yakatme

Comment:
I see that you have the system worked out for taking your camera out on your paddle board. The light is great for this shot.
Congrats on a good shot and a good place in the free study.

Blue Jay
by Ivory

Comment:
The way this is framed with the areas of light and color make it very special. It brings the attention right to the bird, and the colors are sweet. Nice job of orchestrating the light.

Zombie Gnome
by SandRose

Comment:
Here is a link to a tutorial about preparing images for the challenges here at DPC if you have Photoshop. Preparing images for DPC Challenges Tutorial
Even if you don't use Photoshop, maybe some of the info in the tutorial will help you to figure out how to size images for challenges. You can resize the image first, then reduce the resolution (quality) to achieve the required filesize of 150 or 200 mb.
Congrats on the brown. I missed it by one place once, so don't feel bad about finishing last. The size of the image was the main problem.
Welcome to DPC. I hope that you will learn much and shoot often.

Chimera
by Germaine

Comment:
I thought that this looked like the boats that I have been seeing in your images lately.

When the Spell backfires...
by Lydia

Comment:
What a grand concept, and great image. Then the title cinched the blue. Congrats!

Sunset with Bike
by zeuszen

Comment:
This has a good film-like grain. I have gotten the same effect by underexposing, then in processing bring the brightness up and saturation down, then peg the color sliders to maximize noise. It looks great in this shot.