Mr. Dragonfly
by Denise

Comment:
I chose this one because I love macros. This is well done. Dragonflies are so large it's often hard to get everything in the DOF. You chose well to keep the eyes in focus. Like any portrait, the eyes are the windows to the soul, even if they belong to a bug. The bokeh is nicely done as well.

Love is in the air.
by Denise

Comment:
A cute scene. Your conversion to B&W is nicely done. The grass becomes a nice tone to offset the subjects. I personally like selective desat (although others don't). However, one trick is to partially desaturate the color itself. Here it looks like you have the red boosted as much as possible. This isn't necessary since the rest of the color is B&W. Maybe consider a -30 saturation or so.

Nubble Light's golden windows
by Denise

Comment:
I like to start in the 5.5 section to find a picture that has promise but somehow didn't stack up. However, I like this picture quite a bit. It's an iconic lighthouse scene (albeit without water) and I think you composed things well. The sky is probably what let you down, but actually I don't mind it. While it's mainly white, it does possess a gradient and that can work. The lighthouse also doesn't get lost and remains defined. Frankly I think this image deserves higher than the score it got.

Overture
by Neil

Comment:
I only looked at the comments after I formulated what I was thinking and see Bear called you a Bear-clone. I have to agree this looks like his special little location. Was it? Anyway, I didn't remember this was your Masters' entry. I do still think the colors are a bit overdone, but this is a sky to die for. Have you ever thought about starting a cloud library where you can take shots to superimpose in the BG or landscapes? I've toyed with it but wish I had a location close to my house that allows a pretty unobstructed view of the horizon. You could sort by direction, time of day, etc. Anyway, a sky like this is pure photographic gold.

Sunpressionism
by Neil

Comment:
Despite the artifacting, the colors here and softness of the seeds is wonderful. I absolutely love the transitions from yellow to orange to dark. The crop also lends a very dynamic feel with strong diagonal lines and allowing the subject to escape the frame.

Cascade
by Neil

Comment:
I like doing shots like this, but have you noticed that even a few inches off the center of the image, or having the lens just off parallel will skew the shot. I can see the arches naturally curve to the right eventually, but I also see that right away the spine of the arch isn't perfectly vertical. If you can get the camera positioned just right to have that straight up and down, I think it transforms the shot somewhat.

Autumn Rocks
by Neil

Comment:
This is going to be difficult since you already know what you are doing. Instead of commenting on technicals (which you don't need), maybe I'll just freeform some impressions. This one jumps out at me as a nice scene. I miss those Adirondak autumns. The idea that the waterfall is so non-prominent works well. It's almost an afterthought to the glowing tree on the left. The image also has so many levels and layer of space. Love it!

Shades of Gray
by The Eskimo

Comment:
This is a pretty nice picture for the bird being faced away from you. It's so common to have them this way and usually it's a case of "too much ass, not enough face", but you capture the birds turned head quite nicely. I like the bokeh as well and think it provides a good balance for the bird. As with the others, it looks like you could sharpen just a bit.

The Old Bridge
by MacDonald

Comment:
I love the colors in this one and the subject, but again I feel just a tiny bit cramped. Try to loosen up your crop if you can. Sometimes the crop is the way it is for a reason (something ugly being cut out), but you may like the results if you let your landscapes and animals breathe in the image just a bit.

surfing in silver waters
by MacDonald

Comment:
I like this one very much. Great image. THe processing may be a little oversharp(?) or maybe it's just the lighting made things too contrasty. Still we get an awesome sense of the power of the wave offset nicely by the fluid form of the sillhouetted surfer.