Futility
by L1

Comment:
I snickered.

Ugly - Clean To the Bone
by lynnesite

Comment:
Not exactly the greatest marriage of proverb to image here. The horses are neither exceptional examples of beauty, nor are they ugly in any way, and even on a metaphorical level the 'goes clean to the bone' part doesn't fit in any way that I can see.

Whats behind the paint?
by AmeedEl-Ghoul

Comment:
This is one of the first ribbon winners in a long time that I actually enjoy looking at. It has a story hidden in there, and the color play is pretty divine. I would love my walls painted like that!

A Gift of Nature
by Brad

Comment:
On a sunny morning in Mid-April, it finally happened. After millenia of being a lesser species, the Butterflies of Earth decided they'd had enough. No more being slaves to the pollination so that those damn humans could just come and destroy it all. No more flitting beautifully, yet without freedom, in countless 'gardens' for the amusement of those vicious masters.

No, it was all going to end on this day.

Carson landed on the head of one of them, and punched his proboscis through her skull, directly into the right spot of her brain. Instantly her eyes glazed over, and a manic grin appeared on her face, and she stood up robotically and began to move. On countless others, in every country of the world, the scene was repeated again and again.

Yes. They would have their revenge.

Wonder
by trevytrev

Comment:
She had been here since time immemorial, this little imp of a thing, with her flowing golden locks and chubby little cheeks. Much as a human child of few summers, but ageless in a way that humanity could never know.

She had been here from the time the sun had burned its first fire, and she had tended these groves and this earth with loving tenderness for all that time.

She had been here, and had thought that she would always be, but as she crouched there among these last few seedlings, she knew that such a thing was not to be. For there was a change now. A change she could feel in the earth. A change she could taste in the water, and a change she could hear in the whispers of the breeze. A change that told her that her time here was almost done.

So she tenderly stroked the seedlings, releasing a small cloud of their precious cargo, and smiled with a tear in her eye. Then she stood, and raising her arms to the sky she gathered around her the last of the energy that had guided her through the eons to this time, and with that energy she called to her a hard but gentle wind.

The air gathered about her, whipping her hair and hitting the seedlings about her feet, and as it did they gave up the last of their seeds, sending them flying about in all directions, to destinations even she did not know.

As the seeds blew in a maelstrom of fluff like the deepest of snow, she lifted her face to the winds and closed her eyes, and amidst the swirling activity she slowly faded away, and the earth knew her no more.

Dive of the Valkyries
by raish

Comment:
...and they came down from out of nowhere, on a mission to subjugate a people to their wills, put them under their dominion, make them slaves to their desire.

We never saw it coming, the attack. In every country, in every land, those lines appeared from the sky, and hit the earth in explosions of dust, cracking whatever surface they lit upon and sticking fast. We looked upon them in wonder and awe. What were they? Where did they come from? There was nothing in the sky that they could be attached to, that we could see. Nothing.

Yet from that nothing something came. Oh yes, they came, and they were evil and dreadful and full of destruction.

We never saw it coming, and we were completely overwhelmed, and it wasn't long before we were absolutely destroyed.

Hanging On To Traditions
by Hipychik

Comment:
It was to be a simply family dinner, two generations separated by one, meeting for a lovely brunch on that clear and pleasant morning.

However, just as they were about to arrive at the restaurant, they heard it. The screeching of tires, the explosions, the screams. As one they turned towards the sounds and their faces transformed.

He set himself, and a look of concern and fortitude passed his eyes, and he knew he would have one last act of heroism to perform.

She looked on in pain and horror, but soon realized that her retirement would have to end, for one last act.

And the little one? She just scrunched an eye and glared, for she knew that her grandparents would follow her into this battle one last time, and she could do nothing to stop it, and it was time to act.

So as one, the three of them stepped into the street, and as they did their clothes morphed into colorful costumes and energy crackled around them, and with a shout of solidarity they entered into the fray.

Caramel morning
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
The sun came up on that fateful morning as it had come up a billion times before. However, on this day, it shone down upon an earth that was forever changed. Forever different. On this morning was the morning after a destruction had been wrought that had been so severe that it had left nothing alive on the face of it outside a few scattered pockets of dry and withered grasses.

Nothing, that was, but a single tree. Against all odds, and against all possibility did that tree still stand, while all around it was pure and utter wasteland, brought about by a species that never embraced the planet they had found themselves upon, and had finally initiated a final act that should have scorched and annihilated that globe beyond repair.

But that was not to be, for while the rest of the earth was sitting in scorched and damaged injury, there stood that tree.

As the sun rose, a cool and healing breeze began, and the leaves rustled, and a few pods opened up within its branches, and it began to seed...

... for life would not be denied, despite us all.

The crack of dawn
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
I love that you decided to stay with a more natural lighting and still won a ribbon. Didn't need any fancy topaz/tonemap/over-done HDR for this! no sir!

Airborne
by stargazer05766

Comment:
I take it you cloned out some kind of object under the dog? There looks to be some cloning work in the background (semi-identical out of focus objects, et al).

Unfortunate, but almost definitely a major object if so.

Too bad about the DQ. It's a nice action shot.