I'm outta here!
by glad2badad

Comment:
Wow, nice catch.

Training Flight
by bleu

Comment:
Love love love. 10.

Once Your Eyes Are Open - You'll See Angels Everywhere
by ShannonLee

Comment:
Oh, the...come-togetherness of it all!

Garden Sprites
by L1

Comment:
Crazy Texan kids. ;)

Live and Let Die
by Mr_Pants

Comment:
Great shot. Stunning detail and color, great pose and composition. Wings, not so much.

Raptor
by DrAchoo

Comment:
Nice details in this shot but seems odd that the majority of the wings are cut off for a wings challenge.

Amber Tides
by aliqui

Comment:
I'd be curious to see what your original looked like on this. To be honest, it looks like you jacked it up quite a bit in your post-processing. You've lost detail in the lower 2/3 of the sky, the mountains, most of the water and the bottom righthand corner. There's also some pretty strong banding across the upper part of the sky which generally indicates that you've pushed something farther than it can go. Compositionally, it pulls my eyes apart because the subjects are right at the bottom of the frame and then right near the top with nothing at all to look at in the middle. Even the mountains are only moderately interesting and appear a bit more like clipart because of the harsh lack of detail. A lower angle perhaps and a little lighter on the pp may have gained you some points. But there's your roughness. ;)

elmo
by Seanachai

Comment:
Awesome photo and great story to go with it. You should paste your forum post into the photog's comments. :)

Proud to Serve
by BHuseman

Comment:
You can probably attribute some of your low votes after this morning to the fact that you thrashed voters while having an entry that's pretty easily connected back to you. But since you asked, here are some comments:

Lighting is okay...not bad but not particularly interesting either. Just pretty even overall which is fine but doesn't lend much feeling to the shot. Your post-processing kills the shot. If your intention was to make it look like you shot with a shallower depth of field, you failed because it looks unnatural and you did a sloppy job around the head and overblurred the edges of the jacket. Better to move the subject farther away from the backdrop if you're wanting it more blurred or if it's distracting. Had there been a shallower DOF here ,I think the pattern on the curtain(?) would have been okay but the wrinkles are still a little distracting.

If your intention was to emulate some kind of glamor portrait, then I'd say bad choice for a military shot.

The head is a little close to the top for my taste, it makes the frame feel a little crowded. Smile seems a little forced. Overall, I think you have a good opportunity to make some powerful and dignified self-portraits in uniform but this shot feels a little more like an assembly-line shot done at the end of a reception room. American Photo had a shot on the cover a few months ago that stuck with me. Perhaps if you work on some more dynamic lighting...in any case, I hope some of this helps in some way.

-brave shit mk

I woke to shadows on my window.
by shamer

Comment:
4.7?! Daaaang.