Acanthis flammea
by alfresco

Comment:
Great bird picture, but there is so little variation in the background that the bokeh doesn't get to add to the story, it is there, a little. There are a few really nice shots in this challenge that would have been better served in free study, IMHO, this is one.

Lightheaded
by gyaban

Comment:
Im having a hard time being fair to this image. The rules say that we are to vote keeping in mind this is a photographic challenge, and there is very little in this image that hasn't been stretched like taffy. We are well into the arena of digital art.

However, all your components are photographic and your pun is carried deep into the image not just having the model be lightheaded, but inducing that feeling in the viewer with the swirling twisted vision of a migrane headache, where all of the parts dance a twirl as if we are about to faint.

So what should i do? Vote you down because what you did goes too far? Or vote you all the way up because what you did is brilliant, and every tug and pull is in service to the artistic vision. I will contemplate and seek clarity.

Facts
by raish

Comment:
I always try to leave a note for the image that I rated highly that finished lowest in the voting, and in this challenge this entry has that dubious distinction.

I think you were done in by the voter's notion of "fine". I could easily see this being hung in a modernist museum, with its spiraling questions of how an image represents reality, how letters and symbols stand for a concrete objects, how pigment on paper comes to take on the meaning of a depicted object, and how labels themselves shift our understanding of an object. It just goes 'round and 'round. Ouroboros eating his own tail.

Plus the image itself is just eccentric fun.

Congratulations, and Im sorry.

Weep
by Kelli

Comment:
This could be double entered in bokeh. I like the delicate web like transparency in the petals, and the way the form is countered on the stem. the colors are deftly handled.

"It isn't very pretty..."
by PennyStreet

Comment:
It sure feels empty. I can just imagine Hank Williams on the radio and the smell of stale beer. the framing makes this shot very strong, and finding a trailer that matches the soil is a real bonus.

Left Alone
by hbakko

Comment:
Great subject wonderful tones and very well lit. The only knock is the missed focus. I can imagine this with crisp fur and it could really sing, it looks a touch back focused. I love the way the light bounces around in the folds of the dog's face, but I miss the textures that should be there.

I'll be sad with you
by Judi

Comment:
The best of the facial expressions, mostly because you didn't over sell it. you depicted a gentle comfortable melancholy with great delicacy, the use of DOF really is superb. Top two for me.

Depression and Disability
by AllenP

Comment:
I like the way you positioned the woman down in the corner, off to the side and neglected, facing off frame; and the reciprocal gesture of the lamp pointing off and away keeps balance beautifully. The rest of the frame is dense and busy with lots of good textures. Top two in my book.

Violence
by NiallOTuama

Comment:
Graphically the best in the challenge. I keep thinking " What no saxaphone? could have been 'Sex and Violence'" . the lighting is well done, all the details are there to enjoy, without strong shadows that would have messed with the repetitive layout you envisioned. Top two in my book.

Eggplant
by neesham

Comment:
clever idea very well carried out. complex without being fussy and the lighting is very deft. I like the way you imitated sunshine without throwing the cut away section into shadow. the only quibble is the way the two roots are standing out from the plane of earth and egg. It is nice to have them in the image, but the way they break the plane steals some of the magic.

One of my top two, ought to ribbon.