Floating Dream
by gyaban

Comment:
I've just been looking through the balloon photos and although I've only looked at the top 10 so far, this one is easily my favourite!

The composition and idea are nice, but what really makes this one stand out are the wonderful colours, which compliment everything else perfecty.

Very well done, shame it wasn't top three, definitely deserved to be!

Entering Spring
by npasel

Comment:
I don't really get it as an entrance. I could almost have given you "Entering Spring" if I felt your shot conveyed it to me, but I'm afraid not.

On the shot itself, it's a bit OOF, and cropped oddly. The colours also seem a touch flat.

Butter Chicken
by Lonni

Comment:
I figured this wouldn't do great as like you say, food shots usually don't, but there's no way it deserved to score anywhere below 6! Clearly meets the challenge and a great shot to boot, you was robbed!

Abstracts, Spring Catalogue, Page 7
by bspurgeon

Comment:
This was probably my favourite of the abstracts. It's a wonderful painterly like image, reminiscent of Monet, which I think for a photography is an outstanding accomplishment!

Looking over the comments I see I'm not the first person to make that comparison.

Aquaracer by Tag Heuer
by Covert_Oddity

Comment:

Originally posted by Art Roflmao: Congrats! One of only 3 10's I gave out. Aperture: f10 - really?? Just curious - seems like very shallow dof.

Yep, I was pretty close so I needed the f/10 to get any depth of field at all. As a result I had my flash at full power and I was still struggling to get enough light on it, the original is quite a bit duller.

Finest Jewellery
by bubeltrubel

Comment:
I had this one pegged for a ribbon, one of the best in the challenge I thought. Congrats on the HM!

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, Spain.
by bob_bobski

Comment:
I thought the exact same thing as glad2badad, what's a photo as good as this doing just sitting in your portfolio. You should definitely have put this into a Free Study back when you took it, great shot!

From The Ground Up
by Luci11e

Comment:
You say it's difficult to get a clean shot of this tree, so why not go in the other direction, include elements of the town in the shot and show how the tree is part of the community.

I think your problem here is lighting and composition. The shot is cluttered, the focus is on the branch in front, but what are we looking at that's interesting about that branch? Bear in mind that most of your viewers don't have the same emotional attachment to the tree that you do so to them it's just a branch on a tree.

I think you have an interesting subject here, go back at different times of the day and try taking it from different angles. Try it with backlighting, eg, setting sun, try it with long shadows, try a whole bunch of different things that you think wouldn't work. Take hundreds of photos of it, examine them, find the angles and positions you like and go take hundreds more like them. I'm rambling slightly now, but that's how I find good pictures of difficult subjects, it may or may not work for you :)

Veins branch out, offering sustenance to no avail
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
Lighting is a touch harsh here, I'm guessing either from an overcast sky or front on flash.

flow
by posthumous

Comment:
Interesting title, I was listening to a podcast about "flow" recently, not that it has much to do with your shot but I just thought I would mention it.

I didn't instantly like this when I opened it, but it very quickly became appealing, not sure why. I hope people stop and take the time to look at this, it's a really interesting well done shot.