"Beauty is but a flower"
by Loki

Comment by Kavey:
Lovely muted image with colour only really in the plant. Nice choice to freeze water motion too.

"Beauty is but a flower"
by Loki

Comment by binkyat3:
This is so lovely and appealing - what a wonderful gorgeous picture - congrats!

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by graphicfunk:
Congratulations on your 5th placing. A very compelling image.

"Beauty is but a flower"
by Loki

Comment by tyt2000:
Nice idea, I wish its height was set to 640 though. (8)

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by bongo:
Good job at setting mood. Congratulations on your top ten finish!

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by Rooster:
Love this shot... the tones are great & very appropriate. I like the title as well. I hope this wins but some with uncalibrated monitors may find this a bit dark. Perfefct to me. 10! Good luck!

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by Pixelstate:
This is without doubt one of the best entries. I would be dissapointed if it does not at least attain top 3

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by gerdagrice:
Great tones and very good choice of subject.

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by Olyuzi:
Wonderful tonal contrasts and textures. Though I believe this to be flash lighting, the effect is very good, especially with the black background that isolates the feet so well. Very sobering message but very well done.

"Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness"
by Loki

Comment by Imagineer:
This is doubtless an excellent photo - rich in tonal range and texture, full of detail and well composed. The only flaw in my view, is that these feet are bereft of the very context that led them to be this way.

For the cynics this is a staged shot reliant on the title to suggest it's a genuine subject - and the trainers/sneakers appear to be pretty decent apart from some carefully placed, crisply cut holes.

For those who aren't cynical and go for DPC aesthetic, it's a blue ribbon.

For me - I'm between the two. It's not perfect because of the lack of context which would add so much gravitas - of course it might still not satisfy cynics, but there would be more of a statement for its case.