Wide Open Spaces
by Lydia

Comment by Lydia:
You didn't lie, Mark... It's all good. :D

I hope things at home have settled down now.

Wide Open Spaces
by Lydia

Comment by markwiley:
I lied to you, Lydia. And, for that I apologize. I said I would participate, and then things got hectic at home and I failed to follow through. I appreciate your attempt to spur things along. I am disappointed in myself for falling short on this.

"Yes... I'd love to dance, sir."
to Self: "Yeah... pretty sure I'll regret this tomorrow..."
by Lydia

Comment by Jules1x:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

First off I love knowing I can say pretty much whatever I am thinking and it'll be okay. So thanks.

And second for the critique...

When I was voting I was very open with what I thought could relate to Year of the Monkey. I tried to do a bit of reading but still did not feel I could really judge what did or did not meet the challenge. That said a New Year is brought in with major partying all over the world it seems, so a party animal definitely fits the challenge in my mind.

Creatively I loved this. Tutu was wonderful and the dog's expression is priceless. Too bad the little guy couldn't dance on his own, the hand distracted a bit even though it made sense in the context of a dance.

I thought the technicals of the image were great. I gave the image a 6 during voting. The sharpness of the dog's face and gentle blur of the background I found very pleasing. I did not find anything bothersome in the processing. The colors of the flowers added significantly to my enjoyment of this.

So sorry I'm not sophisticated enough to really understand in this case how this ended up with a score below 5. I guess maybe others had strict ideas of what did and did not meet the challenge. I admit some of my top pics had more of a Chinese ring to them, but the technical image worthiness to your shot seemed to help your rise above others in my mind.

Keep shooting. Glad to have you around here!

a Dandy Conception
by Lydia

Comment by whitewolf:
Cool photo -

Wide Open Spaces
by Lydia

Comment by primabarbara:
Ha Lydia, you have to start another game to give away your free membership ...
Never thought this would be yours Where was it?

Blues
by Lydia

Comment by vawendy:
You actually don't need balls. We're females. We've been doing without them for eons. The thing of it is: we rarely get in trouble for anything. We can take pictures of kids and not look like perverts. We're all powerful! The guys are the creepy, suspicious-looking types. We're too innocent looking. :)

IT happens
by Lydia

Comment by colorcarnival:
lol you are so crazy. I hope you've been having fun on your vacation!

"Yes... I'd love to dance, sir."
to Self: "Yeah... pretty sure I'll regret this tomorrow..."
by Lydia

Comment by RKT:
It's dog in a monkey show. I see no homage to the challenge theme at all. Also, there is something a little too crunchy about the processing where the dog is concerned, a personal taste thing for me...looks a little too HDRish to my eye. 3

"Yes... I'd love to dance, sir."
to Self: "Yeah... pretty sure I'll regret this tomorrow..."
by Lydia

Comment by grahamgator:
Love the expression, lol. Twinkle Toes. Looks like a Lydia shot, if not then consider a compliment.

Sensory Overload
by Lydia

Comment by clickodak:
Superb composition. I give 9