Journey of a Thousand Miles
by paganini

Comment by timmi:
Beautiful photo, but really ugly border (sorry). The colours are great, so is the sharpness. This is in one in the million kind of shot, where you catch the bird in the perfect moment of stepping down. The text is kind of lost in the image. It could have been better on the bottom of the black frame reversed. The photo itself is very good, but the framing really spoiled it.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by muckpond:
great capture. i am not sure this has a soft enough focus for this challenge, however.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by Miah:
hehe.. they look like they're kicking each the other's ass ;) reminds me of crouching tiger hidden dragon :-P haha.. and the curved wing up and to the right looks really funny ;)

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by dsidwell:
This is just a lot of joy and exhuberance here! Very nice work. It could be that it's too sharp! Oh well, high marks anyway.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by Imablessed:
Great photo. It really does look as if they are dancing. I give it an 8

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by MWitt:
Interesting capture. what are those, chips, bread crumbs?
Sorry, no soft focus here. lost a point for that one.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by drydoc:
I think I would have prefered focusing only on the four around the sun only. The others, off the shot, are more distracting than complimentary.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by hughletheren:
Gorgeous! Perhaps straighten the skyline and cropping in or out on the right might improve?

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by Artifacts:
Although this is not soft focused in any way it is a superb sunset picture. The way you have captured the sun surrounded by birds is stunning. Also getting the lighting on the sun correct while maintaining lighting and detail on the birds is commendable.

The only flaw is that the ocean is not level and fixing that, unfortunately, would screw up the framing of the birds at the edge of the image.

Dancing Softly
by paganini

Comment by magnus:
I'll ignore the obvious lack of soft focus, since you'll undoubtedly get lots of comments on that. The two birds are so interesting that you may want to focus the attention on them by cropping out some of the others. Personally, I'd get rid of all but the three closest to the sun, but there are other less drastic options too. Also, straighen that horizon! Finally, after the challenge, a bit of spot-editing to remove the glare would be worth while. This has the makings of a fabulous photo!