The Turn
by Phocal

Comment by Ammie:
Lovely shot

Hello
by Phocal

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Great capture of an animal in its own environment - I could tell from the first glance that this was no zoo shot. Love the focus on the head, can just imagine how you felt when you met it. The sinuous body, the duckweed on the surface of the water, the natural lighting, good comp, though maybe a little more dof would be good. Shooting wide-open is pretty dicey esp with such a shallow dof.

But DANG! That branch! That is definitely a big part of what killed your score imnsho. As already noted, it decapitates the snake and thus robs it of some of its power. That, coupled with the DPC voter fraidy cat voting when it comes to creepy-crawlies and not kutesy kritters or majestic felines/raptors etc....*sigh*

Still, a very good image. Maybe just a little more pp contrast would have helped, but cloning out all of that twig would have been a major pain in the butt.

Susan

Sexy
by Phocal

Comment by Jules1x:
Hi from the Critique Club.

A great image that scored well, always a challenge to 'critique' these.

I was fascinated to read that this was taken in a State Park, wow. So this guy was roaming free? Incredible how you got so close.

I love the close-up aspect to this image, and your chosen aperture seemed to get the perfect amount of this creature in focus while nicely blurring out any distractions in the background. Excellent! I would be curious what this image would look like if the area of blurred foreground was taken out, or leaving just a slip of that foreground visible. This would have placed your subject lower in the image, but maybe an equal amount of the top of the image could also have removed to almost make this more of a fill-the-frame shot? Not sure if that would make this any stronger or not, you've got a strong shot as is. Well done and thanks for sharing.

A Long Day
by Phocal

Comment by tate:
I like the raw spontaneity. 7

The Turn
by Phocal

Comment by digifotojo:
Hope she made it! 9

The Turn
by Phocal

Comment by josaa:
Perfect action pic. 10

The Turn
by Phocal

Comment by skewsme:
them's serious biceps

Hello
by Phocal

Comment by Revecca:
Looks angry! -hides-

The Prince
by Phocal

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

An appealing image that is deemed to meet the challenge.

First of all, congratulations on winning this challenge. My own perception of bokeh has always been much more clearly identified with specular highlights as opposed to soft or OOF areas which is where I would place your entry. The challenge brief would also seem to veer more towards the soft focus rendering than my own interpretation. I love everything about this lovely image it is very well executed, however, I would probably have scored it lower than an image with clearly defined bokeh in respect of my definition than has obviously been the case here at DPC.

The image itself is gorgeous, I love the sharp focus on the eye and the shallow DOF both obviously essential regardless of the challenge brief. Its always a classic to photograph a frog emerging with this lovely duckweed on and around it, perfect. I particularly love the eye and the reflections, superb. There's no doubt about it, this really is a lovely image but I still long for 'true' bokeh in it.

Well done Ronnie, an excellent image, Sid

The Prince
by Phocal

Comment by RyanW:
well, Not Lydia at all! Congrats on the blue Kobba!