The Bird
by james_so

Comment:
Enjoying the paintbrush stroke effect of the blurred background.

lakefront
by undieyatch

Comment:
Good eye to capture the abstract potential in a potentially mundane scene. Upright black post crosses thin horizontal line (would echo a religious cross if the tiny horizontal black bit were cropped off the left, but leaving that anchors this as a partly environmental abstract showing harbor exit), white vertical elements contrast with light grey sky, texture of shade/screen material interacts with texture of water surface. Not eye candy, so at risk of ending with lower score than justified by artistic merit.

SMILE
by tvsometime

Comment:
Lots of life captured in this image. Black and white works very well to allow appreciation of the interesting patterns of light and less light everywhere in the floor. Bumping up a point on second look.

Framed
by Robski

Comment:
In theater, curtains at the sides and fabric across the top of the stage provide a setting for the action. Here, the green vegetation on the sides and top accomplish the same. On the bottom, the fine textured dirt and gravel mixed with clumps of grass seems unnecessary and distracting. Cropping it away could allow viewers easier appreciation of the detailed reflection of the building.

IMG_7652
by nikii_paigee

Comment:
Green apple against red background provides an opportunity for a strong image. However, because our eyes automatically give extra attention to high contrast areas, the bright white background contrasting with red leaves diminishes our appreciation of the main subject. Similar issue with the fingertips. A bit of repositioning might help avoid these issues.

photobomb
by tanguera

Comment:
What a marvelous combination of lighting, expression, humor and color. Good image to pull out for students who need to learn that simple backgrounds can still be interesting, and that color relationships can be introduced without hitting the viewer over the head with them. Predicting a high score.

Winter coats
by Enlightened

Comment:
Impressive use of light, color, and compositional excellence. Bumping up to eight now that I've seen all the entries and had time to look again.

The City Sleeps
by Elaine

Comment:
Left brain wants to dislike this, but right brain takes over and likes it anyway. That makes literate commentary challenging, but the image does a good job of communicating subtleties of urban essence visually instead of with words.

Black Drongo
by artistChan

Comment:
Dark bird on bright yellow highly textured field evokes some feelings generated by the Van Gough painting Wheatfield with Crows. Unfortunately, a photograph might have to wait a long time to reach similar pricing. Enjoyable image that should do well.

3 (4)
by donnydonald88

Comment:
Composition does have some separation into foreground, mid-ground, and background, but it is difficult to land on a particular subject of interest. The palms and vegetation could be interesting if showing more detail (maybe move closer and apply some sharpening in post processing). Mostly it seems a shame to enter such a small version in the first challenge to allow 1200 pixel sides. That will probably decrease the overall score.