Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by Ammie:
Truly magnificent photography. Real wonderful catch and catch!

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by glad2badad:
Cool spider! Great catch to see this event and capture it with your camera. Do wish it was a little sharper and had more "pop" (contrast).

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by Denise:
wow, great macro

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by mrbig65:
ooooahhh,,,, scary albino-spier,,,,,fo,,,,,7

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by Insomniac:
I know you didn't have much of a choice, but the white on white really hurts this photo. Great moment you captured here though - as Lord Tennyson said, "Nature, red in tooth and claw".

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by hotpasta:
ouch, that would hurt! good overall...lacks crispness

Life and death
by ManRayfan

Comment by Lad:
Freaky, makes me shirver.....
Great image tho

Kortum Trail View
by ManRayfan

Comment by sfalice:
[b[GREETINGS FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB[/B]

aH ha, another Northern California DPCer. Welcome. It looks as if you are having fun with your new Canon DSLR. Oh, yes, I am a ManRay fan too!

Okay, to work.

The first thing I noticed when I opened your image was that your horizon was tack-sharp. Nice. You have a good composition with those rain clouds in the background, the rock in the middleground and that ravine close up. As your commenters mentioned, it is pretty flat, however.

The excitement IS there, though. By emphasizing darks and lights with Levels, and accenting colors, especially reds and greens, it is possible to bring some depth to this very nice image. Finally a tiny touch of dodging could give detail to that splendid rock.

The apple blossoms must be just about ready to burst forth in your part of the country. I can hardly wait.

Meanwhile, I shall look forward to seeing more of your work on DPC.

Alice

Kortum Trail View
by ManRayfan

Comment by hotpasta:
good, but lacks something interesting...this would photograph better at evening or morning 6

Mono Lake Reflections
by ManRayfan

Comment by salmiakki:
Greetings from the Critique Club

This is a location that I have seen a few times on DPC, definitely somewhere I would like to see for myself.

I think your image scored reasonably well for a best of challenge, but could probably have scored higher. I liked the image and gave it a decent score, 7.

Nothing wrong technically with the image, apart from, and this is just my opinion, the white balance. I realise this was a creative decision to boost the blues, but to me it feels quite strange and doesn't work. I'd love to see it reprocessed with a warmer WB setting.

As far as composition goes, I can't decide whether I would prefer a wider angle to see more of the surrounding scenery, putting the rocks more in context, or if I would prefer an even tighter crop. I know a few of the commenters stated they would like to see the foreground rocks somehow framing the picture more. I certainly would like to see the whole reflection of the background rocks. I have to say, I have no idea if that was feasible or not at that location.

As I said, i scored this quite high.

Sarah