At the lake of fog
by fridjo

Comment:
Beautiful landscape and a magic moment. Rreally well framed and angled, it strikes a pretty good good trade-off between local and general contrast, without dodge and burn excesses. I think the stray light actually adds to the mood of the image and the feeling of being up there.

Switzerland?
Excellent job, congratulations!
(non voter)

always a boy
by LevT

Comment:
Portrait at the next level, some would say :) Love this one too for sure.

_LTS9928w.jpg
by LevT

Comment:
So abstract and still not quite, I like it.

Ophelia's Net Weight
by posthumous

Comment:
That's quite impressive, thanks for sharing details of the post-processing, very interesting.

Through the night
by LevT

Comment:
tome directed me to your 'Japanese Train' image and by chance I stumbled in this.
So glad I did.
Wonderful.

please don't go
by LevT

Comment:
This is just so good. While I love looking at good photographs and perhaps indulging in the suspension of belief, I am rarely sincerely and unwittingly moved. There is a simplicity in the photo and message message which is just rare and so good in style.

Moondance
by Hipychik

Comment:
Hemm, I think my 9's tend not doing too well in challenges.
This really is a wonderful find and well captured, it just takes a few moments to realize where the subjects are, which is a good thing.
Independently from the score, congratulations!

A Song of Autumn
by Purple_Girl

Comment:
As promised, here's my comment :)
For what is worth, I gave this one a 6.
I think it would have benefitted from underexposing a bit to keep texture on the leaves and grass, if the idea was to suggest a relation between musician and autumn. But perhaps there are not enough leaves or other autumn related elements close to the subject to stress the concept. Aprroaching the guy and convincing him to sit under an oak tree and pose for a real portrait maybe would have been a good idea.
In general, I did not find the composition and choice of angle particularly evocative.
I read your description above and, living in the UK too, I think I understand the feeling of excitment occasional glimpses of sun can generate this time of the year. But the photo does not convey that too well.
Possibly an angle showing more of the musician, perhaps frontal, would have worked better. Or perhaps a framing including some brighter area on the left-top corner, so the musician would appear to be gazing into the light.

Just out of curiousity, which focal length was this one taken at? The perspective looks a bit flat and the depth of field is shallow, which increases subject/background separation but weakens the leaves/subject relationship, at least with this type of bokeh. Maybe a case for getting closer to your subject?

I'm not sure if the above helps at all, sorry if it doesn't.
Also, consider that we all tend being more interested with slightly unusual sights. Angle and colour of the light, type and colour of the grass, the very subject, I could not avoid being sure this was taken in the UK and feelign it was, at least from this angle and perspective, a pretty usual sight.

Irrational Relationship
by gyaban

Comment:
I was hoping this would end up higher.
For me this was an 8.
I keep tilting my laptop to the left to look at it in portrait orientation and just love it, it turns the gravity pull towards the right, away from the light and into the light of the flower.
Sorry, I am obsessed :) Congratulations, great image!

Duque and Emilie
by sfmorris

Comment:
I like the subjects, the affection is evident. I feel this could be better if it was either more contrasty or softer and dreamy. This way to my eyes the image is a bit midway between the two extremes, even if I guess resolution might play a role and in large print the soft focus would be more evident. Not sure if and how this was post-processed, but sometimes this approach works well for this kind of images: Soft glow effect
Just a suggestion, though.