Metamorphosis: Newly Eclosed Monarch
by indigo997

Comment:
The butterfly really wanted to fly and actually fluttered around my room a few times. I fed it some apple juice and then left it in the yard hoping it would find a way to fly off. Unfortunately, we found its wings scattered on the ground the next day :( I think it was attacked by yellowjackets.
You can see in the picture where I had glued the chrysalis to the branch because it had fallen. I also had to break off the end of the stick because it kept wanting to climb to tip, and I couldn't get the chrysalis in the shot.
I have some shots of it with better lighting on the wings and a totally black background. This one just had more detail. the wings and body don't show up as well on a black background ;P
Thanks for the votes and comments! It actually took longer than normal to eclose ... which was good because the perfect challenge came along.

Boston
by emorgan49

Comment:
I like the colors and the reflections of the light. The quality seems off... not enough pixels? I have a nice winter shot of this building taken from Boston Common in winter... people iceskating in the foreground. I once worked at Charleys on Newberry so I saw a lot of this building. Boston is an awesome place for urban shots.

big flirt
by indigo997

Comment:
I'm a little annoyed at all the "this isn't rest" comments and votes. An animal or bird sitting is at rest, but a bug isn't?
Mantids are very passive hunters that usually just sit still and wait for something to get close enough to grab. Other than moving some legs up and down, this one didn't move for about twenty minutes.
Shot at 1/5sec.
Maybe it's too bright and colorful to convey a restful feeling, but the bug definitely IS resting.

Flower
by Koriyama

Comment:
Wow. Sometimes it is just completely obvious that this is a site of amateur photographers. IMO this is a gorgeous shot with lots of artistic merit. It could probably benefit from some post challenge editing to burn the flower so that it will stand out a bit more from the background. Lots of nice comments.. shows that there are quite a few ppl who can appreciate what you've done here. You obviously can't judge how successful your work is by the final score.

After the Rain
by Musicman

Comment:
I love the color and how you've filled the frame here. IMO you should make it softer. Since you already don't have spot-on-focus, I think you should just go the other way and give it more of a dreamy feel. Judging by the number of comments, this shot has some fans. Now that you can edit, you might burn (darken) a few of the petals behind the main flower so that all of the edges stand out. In particular, the one along the left side.

Thirsty fly
by ednaz

Comment:
Wow. tough critics! I really like the colors in this one. The black bg helps it stand out. Interesting little insect with very good focus and lighting. I love all of the water on the flower. You might clone out the bottom right corner to just black now that you can edit. Otherwise, I'm not sure that you can really improve on this. It may be possible to burn some of the lighter water areas on the flower so that it isn't so bright. It's a very nice macro though!

Need a light?
by heida

Comment:
I thought this was really cool. Nice angle and cool use of dof. Really made an interesting shot out of a very ordinary object. Might've benefited from better white balance, but I really like how it goes from being an ordinary, recognizable object to a wash of color. Nice work.

Little Tiny Baby's Breath Blooms
by smellyfish1002

Comment:
This really deserved to do better. I gave it a 7 even though the focus on the center flower could have been a bit sharper. I like the white on black and the use of dof. Very nice.

striped... but not toothpaste
by indigo997

Comment:
I agree with all the critiques on this one and certainly didn't expect it to score so high.
I found this little guy in the yard on Sunday and saved him until evening to try some shots. By the time I was ready, he was acting pretty tired and just fell over when I tried putting him on the toothbrush. I only took a handfull of shots before deciding I should just put him back into the jar. Didn't have a chance to fix the lighting or try for better focus.
I left the jar on the porch so that he would have a chance to crawl out when he felt better. Two days later I went back and discovered why he had acted so sick. On the bottom of the jar was a chrysalis.
So now I have him hanging on a stick in my room. In a few more days we will hopefully have a butterfly!

Bad to the Bone
by sher

Comment:
This shot must not have wide enough appeal. It was in my top ten, and I think it's awesome. Technically one of the best in the challenge. My bf wasn't too crazy about it though, and it obviously didn't score as high as it should have. I love it. The blue, the dof, the composition. It's great! Definitely can't judge the merits of a photo based on dpc score.