Flowers
by ambaker

Comment by nam:
Flowers now? I'm jealous.

Flowers
by ambaker

Comment by Elaine:
I haven't been to the river walk in years. Always enjoyed that area. You captured some lovely yellow!

Flowers
by ambaker

Comment by dafletchr:
Texas is like California, even flowers bloom in winter!

Flowers
by ambaker

Comment by Melethia:
Ah, my old stomping grounds! I trust the weather was nice while you were there? Lovely yellows!

Radiant
by ambaker

Comment by aliqui:
Beautiful colors on that flower, and I like your choice of composition. You seemed to capture this lovely flower at the peak of its beauty. There's no rusty petals, and all the other bits look fresh and new. Even the bokeh grass looks bright and healthy.

Overall, I would say it's a little dark and a little blurry. Shutter speed shows 13 in your notes. Is that 13 seconds? Surely that can't be right? I have a big piece of stiff, white packaging foam that I take out onto my patio sometimes to bounce light on my subjects. That helps with keeping the shutter speed up. Another cause of the softness might be the f/22. It might just be too far out of the lens' sweet spot, which is typically more in the middle of its range.

Green Machine
by ambaker

Comment by aliqui:
There's no way this is worth a 4.8. I'm not sure why this image scored so poorly. It certainly conveys green to me. It's a beautiful boat and pond/lake with beautiful foliage all around. I'd love to hop in that boat and pedal around.

Again, I don't know why it scored so poorly. It's well composed, in focus, nice colors, nice lighting... Maybe they didn't like the bush? It does feel a little voyeuristic like in those cheesy Summer camp type movies. I wonder if maybe it's just the style in which people vote. There was a lot of good shots in front of you, so maybe people voted with a ranking system?

Railroad
by ambaker

Comment by aliqui:
I'm with the other non-commenters on this one unfortunately. There's certainly textures, and certainly materials, but it doesn't grab me. They're also not very pleasant textures. I can't tell you how many splinters I've gotten from wood like that. Just looking at the metal makes my tongue sour (not that I've ever licked any... my tongue just goes sour touching old rusty metal). There's also the texture from the dry, rough rock. Pretty much everything about the chosen textures make me want to stop looking at the photo, because they all have negative reactions to me physically.

I suppose given the above bits about the texture that the afternoon, harsh sun fits right in. I suppose with all this said, it does grab me! I just don't like how it grabs me, heh.

Straight - 8
by ambaker

Comment by Germaine:
Nice collection!

Straight - 8
by ambaker

Comment by jomari:
Nice lineup. (From the thumb I thought it was part of a motor, so the title is apt.)

Which One of These Things is Not Like the Others?
by ambaker

Comment by aliqui:
Fantastic composition choice. It's a very powerful and commanding layout. The pencils are staggered nicely too. Randomness is something I struggle with, so I admire you for this, heh. There's one yellow pencil with a chunk missing out of its eraser that I might have rolled over, but that is being extremely picky.

I think you ended up in the bottom pack mainly because pencils aren't terribly exciting. Granted, wine glasses and folded paper aren't either and those seem to do well (shrug). It certainly fits the challenge. Other reasons might be, the focus being soft and the lighting might be a touch too harsh. Your shutter is 1/6 and the min focal length of your lens was 28. Following the ol rule of thumb (1 / focal length), you shouldn't have been below 1/28 to prevent hand jitter and motion blur. The focus isn't that far off, but it's just enough to freak my eyes out.