I looked all week to find a cool rock, stone or pebble to photograph. Funny that I chopped up veggies on it and didn't even see it...
The best part was actually seeing this granite in ways I haven't in the three years that I've lived here. It's even more beautiful that I thought! So, even if I get low scores, it was really worth my time.
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I didn't vote this challenge, but I just read through your notes on this shot and found them quite interesting. I have found the same thing, that photography makes me look at familiar things in new and unique ways. Instead of just seeing an item, I see the shapes, the subtleties of colors and patterns, and the way the light plays off of it all.
Though this image did poorly as an artistic challenge entry, a larger version would probably be quite nice as a desktop background or an overlay texture.
I agree, in spite of the low score, this challenge was a successful effort for you! (I've had a few of those successful low scores myself!)
I guess with this subject so closely framed there's not much that can be said about the composition as such, some areas in the shot do seem to have a bit more interest than others though so maybe a different crop would have worked slightly better.
Camera Work:
The focus seems a little soft I suspect this may have been handheld and I wonder if that 8 shutter speed was actually 1/8, pushing the ISO would have enabled a faster shutter which would have resulted in an overall sharper image I feel.
Post-Processing:
Unfortunately you haven't listed your processing steps so I cannot see what was done to the shot, I've taken the image into PS and found that with a boost to Hue / Sat and some contrast tweaks the colour are quite delightful and the browns glow almost golden like, I also added some sharpening and this helped with the focus issue considerably - it might be worth going over this image again and reprocessing it to see what improvements you can make.
My Opinion:
I think your subject matter was always likely to result in a low score unfortunately, even with perfect lighting and focus I think your options were fairly limited. But as you say in your notes you refound your "sight" on something not appreciated as much as it once was.
Overall a applaud your decision to go with a shot that had meaning to you and also the fact that you did so pretty much knowing it would result in a lower score, keep on shooting!
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