Dance of the Tulip Leaves
by mlu

Comment:
Don't think the lighting flatters this particularly. It also sits in that middle ground where it's not close enough to be abstract but not far enough to be complete so it lacks any real viewing interest for me.

Tunnel Vision
by Telephant

Comment:
Certainly one of the more abstract I've seen in the challenge.

Remember when WinAmp was the big thing for playing MP3s and it had that visualisation plugin thing, this reminds me a lot of that!

Retaliation
by timb

Comment:
I find if I look at this for long enough I start to see recognisable shapes in the forms. However, the slightly putrid colours put me off looking at it for too long.

Sweep
by PennyStreet

Comment:
This is peaceful, makes me think of a happy journey on a train.

I would expect to see something like this hanging in the foyer of a large corporate building.

Eight Ball -- Corner Pocket
by langdon

Comment:
I love the fact that this photo is still the highest rated in the site. I think if that ever changed the whole place would collapse and everyone would go away and stop taking photos!

This photo in a way is a testimony to how the site has evolved for good and bad. There's not a single vote below 5, because the very worst people thought about it is, it's reasonable, and clearly this was still an era where people voted purely on what they thought of it. That just wouldn't happen now, even if someone submitted the perfect photo (if there is such a thing)!

On the other hand, it's not a photographic masterpiece is it? I probably wouldn't ever come back to it if it wasn't the top raking photo. There must be hundreds if not thousands of photos submitted over the years that are both technically and artistically better than it, but none of them have beaten it, and that is testimony to just how much the standard has increased. This is proof, if it were ever required, that people vote photos relative to the rest of the field.

Well done Langdon, for not only having the top ranking photo to this day, but for giving us a site that has inspired so much skill, art, learning, debate, happiness, anger and most of all, photography!

Rainbow walk
by hajeka

Comment:
I imagine you suffered a lot of low votes from people who didn't get it. Shame, it's a nice image and a good take on the theme.

Flamenco!
by mefnj

Comment:
This is probably my favourite of the smoke only shots, I guess a little softness cost you a higher spot.

E = mc²
by gyaban

Comment:
When I saw this and saw who had taken it I thought, "Another piece of remarkable expert editing", then I started to read your notes on it and went back and looked at the challenge rules thinking you had in fact done it under advanced. When I saw it was minimal I was just gobsmacked!

How Many Everyday Objects Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
by Samantha_T

Comment:
This is amazingly well done, one of the best shot's I've seen here in a long time, both in terms of idea and execution!

T i M B e R
by sherpet

Comment:
It's the simplicity of this that I love. It's fun to look at, it makes you smile.

Wood is always a great subject to photograph, and you do it in such a wonderful way here.