The Lonely Fisherman
by Tiberius

Comment:
An interesting subject, and I like the way the water blends into nothingness. Unfortunately, I really can't stand pure bright backgrounds, since they're very hard on my eyes.

Bird Song
by Nyck

Comment:
I understand that you're trying to break up the tedious background with the parallel lines, but the net effect is unfortunately only to distract from the bird, which is so small as to be indistinct.

It was a nice conceptual attempt, but it didn't really work for me.

The Grain Of Rice
by Sonda

Comment:
I'm not sure how you got the lighting on this, since the grain of rice seems to be emitting light (tagged it with a laser?), but the effect is spectacular. The hand looks almost like it was carved in great detail in stone, and creates an interesting backdrop for an obvious subject. 10.

keys
by froglet

Comment:
Very elegant, minimalist, on a background with an interesting texture. I'm not all that far into scoring yet, but it's the best I've seen so far. The level of brightness is exactly correct, and the older style of the keys makes the subject interesting.

skateboard
by petrakka

Comment:
Although this doesn't really meet the challenge description (small area), it does meet the classic definition of minimalism, so I'm not docking points for that. However, the white is harsh and glaring, causing the wheel to become indistinct on the right side and hurting the eyes, and the skateboard seems slightly out of focus.

Switch
by philcozz

Comment:
An interesting concept. The fading color of the background offsets the tedium, and the hand in the reflection draws the eye. My only real complaint is that the reflected highlights are distracting and make the reflected hand a little hard to look at.

Snail's Pace
by 4score

Comment:
My second snail-on-blank shot seen tonight. Yours has the advantage of being on blue, which is less harsh on the eyes and slightly more interesting than white, but has absolutely nothing else of interest, whereas the other one had at least an interesting shadow. There is also a visible halo around the snail, which is distracting.

The Little House...
by JEFFJSB

Comment:
Pretty, but ordinary. Nothing really draws the eye to the house, particularly with so much bright vegetation in front of it.

Abstract
by redneckbond

Comment:
Well, it's certainly abstract. The colors are very nice, but the bright orange segment seems fuzzy and grainy, with a dark fleck (dirt on the sensor?) that draws the eye without adding to the interest.

The Sun
by zeke123ca

Comment:
Interesting. The colors are excellent, and to my great surprise, having the focus of the picture slightly out of focus, with the focused part used as the backdrop, actually works well for you.