the coop
by nick_hinch

Comment:
A lovely, literally charming photograph. It manages to be both a smile-inducing family 'snap' and a really superb photograph at the same time. That's because it just looks like the former while actually being the latter. I think it's comfortably the best and most interesting picture in the challenge. Thoughtful, unusual, clever, photographically irreverent and perfectly executed - it's not often someone at DPC produces a picture with this kind of genuine substance and durability, that appears so modest at first glance (it's more usually the reverse). 10 and thank you. Plus the best-avoided Order of the Thumb:

The Gansah Mishpucheh
by tanguera

Comment:
Beautifully balanced between a family record and a family hug. It has many lovely fine details (including your own clever disappearance), but it's the overall feeling of mutual affection - you for them and they for you, and for each other - that makes this such a lovely family picture. Thank you. A 10 from me (one point per person), and the alarming Order of the Thumb:

my baby girl's first legal mojito
by FourPointX

Comment:
That's fun, and a good, interesting, 'breathing' picture in spite of because of its photographic informality. A very fine example of when it's a good idea to forget about ticking all the boxes, and just enjoy the moment together. Which makes it just right for a real rather than idealised family memory. Thank you. Do please accept a 9 and an Order of the Thumb:

low light
by daisydavid

Comment:
me too

rendezvous
by bspurgeon

Comment:
Love those tones, and the watcher, and the monolithic beacon, and the sign-in-a-beret on the cyclist. It's full of dark delights. Thank you.

Degas' Ballerina_5493.110911
by mariuca

Comment:
:)

"Say not soft things as other men have said, / That you'll remember. For you need not so."
by Bear_Music

Comment:

Originally posted by spiritualspatula: I'm not giving a very high vote for this ... (etc) ... high marks from me in a FS, but a 5 here.

Hard to credit that a leaf withering in its prime could not be easily perceived as emblematic of this challenge topic.

dedicated: wife, children, & self
by bspurgeon

Comment:
Such a beautiful, poetic photograph. Indelible couplets and phrases; harmony, narrative, resolution and a quiet sense of order. It's a thing deeply considered and yet so economically expressed.

My choice for Best in Show, plus (sorry for you) the DPC kiss of death: the Order of the Thumb. Thank you.

doggie daddy
by skewsme

Comment:
Brilliant. You can have my personal Elliott Erwitt award for this gem. Top three and the consolation prize (versus the Erwitt) of an Order of the Thumb. Thank you.

Ballet dancer
by keyz

Comment:
The everyday hero as a fulcrum: he stands square, the world rotates in blissful nescience upon his shoulders. And still he cops it sweet. Top three, and the Order of the Thumb. Thank you.