Deep in the Heart of Texas
by Phocal

Comment by oldbimmercoupe:
LOL!

Dragons Breath
by Phocal

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique club

An interesting image that meets the challenge.

This is probably the most golden hour I've ever seen! If I'm perfectly honest, which I always try to be, its not entirely to my taste but it certainly captures that early morning moment well and it fulfils the challenge brief with the morning mists. I get the impression that you have applied some saturation, I may well be wrong but I think this would work better with some desat to reduce it to more pastel shades, I find the vivid yellow of the water hurts my eyes. By doing so it may well also bring out the mists on the water itself as opposed to just the darker background. Having said all that, I appear to be in a minority here so well done with your score, result and positive comments

Dragons Breath
by Phocal

Comment by jomari:
Gorgeous, glowing golden-ness.

Leap of Faith
by Phocal

Comment by colorcarnival:
My favorite lens. What a magnificent capture!

Dragons Breath
by Phocal

Comment by PennyStreet:
The golden power

Dragons Breath
by Phocal

Comment by bvy:
An inviting sort of hell.

Pleasure Wheel
by Phocal

Comment by gipper11:
Here is what I like about this photograph: Great composition, extremely nice focus, very nicely processed and that it looks HDR i.e. shows all the different shade without losing any details by either dark shadows or blown out highlights. The horizon is level and everything is clean and sharp for the most part.

What I don't like: This is just a nit-pick but there seems to be a lot of noise showing in the clouds.

This is very nice and I hope it does well.

Pleasure Wheel
by Phocal

Comment by Lydia:
What is the point of focus stacking... or... HDR ... and combing images... to get all of the details in one image...

When all of the details can be gotten with one shot?


I love the image... but... not for this challenge.

Dragons Breath
by Phocal

Comment by SEG:
Color are on point.

Golden Shadows
by Phocal

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Congrats on the well-earned top ten finish, and also kudos for shooting so much to get that one shot in 500 or so in 1 hr to get it. Small flitty birds like this are a pain to shoot, but it was well worth it! Love the golden tones in the bg and great detail on the gnatcatcher. Nice simple comp and proof that you don't always need a BIF to do well here.

My only gnitpick is the left side where the sky must've been starting to lighten with sunrise, it's starting to edge towards glariness. Didn't hurt your score though :-)

Keep on keepin' on, my friend!

Susan