solja

Thanks for the comments everyone:

Jeff #1 - I WISH I was this fast with the shutter. The photos of the sea gulls were taken from near the bit of water you see in the lower left of this photo - the bird flew a circle around me and I snapped a few shots. But, they were just sea gulls against a blue sky, nothing special. Then I got this landscape shot and thought it could use something else, so I added the birds.

Jeff #2 - Thanks for the kind words. I'm not -too- much into digital compositing, I'd rather get the shot when I see it. However, when I do heavy manipulation, I don't like to keep people guessing - it's only fair! Thanks again for the comment/rating.

Thanks to everyone who's commented!

pingu, thanks for the kind words - yes, it was difficult to catch this moment. Out of 24 frames, this was the only one where I caught both the dog and the cat being still! The dog would chase the cat, the cat would chase the dog - the other 23 frames are just a mess. Also, I just noticed the slight tilt this morning - I will rotate it tonight to level it out a bit. Thanks again!

This kind of lends creedence to the notion that cats don't have

owners, they have staff! I shot this using a Vivitar 550 on my EL2

body - what do you think of the composure?

You may want to try cropping the image to get rid of everything to the left of the woman holding the grapes. I find that tree in the left foreground distracting - it almost completely blocks the face of the man in the black jacket and it takes out the eyes and chin of the woman to the left. A different angle or composure may have worked better here.

What do you think?

I love the eyes on insects like these, grasshoppers and praying mantises have similar eye designs and textures. I also like the iridescent-looking colors on the body. Very nice photo, though a bit more DOF would've made it even better!

You caught a nice pose and expression here. To improve on the actual exposure, you may want to try stepping-down in the future to gain a bit more depth-of-field and bring more of the subject into focus. This will involve using slower shutter speeds, but it's worth it.

Good work, keep on shootin'!

Looks like it was windy! I like the feel of this photo, you can almost feel the environment. I actually like the grain, as well - it adds to the 'sandy' feel. Good work.

I took a look at both and personally, I prefer this one - the colors are a bit brighter and appear a little more saturated. Nice work!

Good photo, but I think if you had stopped down to increase your depth-of-field a bit to get those antennae in focus and the rest of the beetle in sharper focus, it would've been a great photo.

It's cropped a bit, just a bit of the wing on each side, but the whole plane isn't in the original frame. This is the only sharp shot I got out of all the shots I took of this plane. The interior of the hangar was very dark with some overcast sunlight coming in from one side, and I was shooting ISO 100 film handheld, with shutter speeds of 1/100 and below, no flash. I think this shot was at 1/100 and others were at 1/60 and they came out pretty blurred by my movement - guess I was just too excited about being around planes I love!

Don't you just love those calm days when the lakes around here turn into mirrors?

The colors seem very washed out in this shot. I know the details say a polarizer was used, but was it turned the right way? The sky seems too light and the colors too pale for a polarizer to have been used.

I love the color in this, the bright greens, the dark browns, and the pale blue of the water. Very cool!

I knew that was going to happen - I finish writing my comment and go back to the discussion and Chris and 5 others have already responded. Just my luck... Oh well!

I'm going to add my 2 cents here, little as they may be worth...

I think the "15" is a very good indicator, I saw this before and figured from the start that this photo was either a wax exhibition or an actor holding a pose. I hadn't even thought if "1/15" was meant, because to me and what I know, this situation/environment cannot be anything that has existed in the 'real world' in the past 20 years. I think the title simply extends to us what the photographer sees in this image, not the actual situation being portrayed.

The strait-jacket, the stone walls, the letter; this all leads me to believe that this is NOT a 'real' condemned man. Unless this photo was taken in the early 20th century and '1987' is wrong, I don't believe there is any way this photo is not wax or staged. We can't get upset at the photographer for not saying "Wax" or "Actor" in the title - titles of photos are like titles of songs or books. They're not literal, they're figurative, they're imaginitive, they describe the idea involved.

In any case, to me it doesn't matter that this photo may be staged - it's still a thought-provoking image and portrays a very dark and moody scene. If you saw it on the wall in a gallery and had no one around to ask or who knew (kinda like here), it's kind of like watching a magician do a trick that you can't explain. You saw it, you don't understand it, you know some trickery was involved, but you're still entertained by it. Magicians do many tricks that were invented by other magicians years ago, yet they still inspire awe, wonder, and entertainment - we don't rag on magicians for doing this, so why would anyone feel differently about this photo if Chris says it was staged? If he does disclose the situation surrounding the photo, I think it's like a magician telling how a trick was done and thus would ruin all the wonder involved.

Anyway, just my humble opinions on it all...

Very vibrant colors!

Time for a higher magnification! Maybe try some closeup lenses?

The subject is a little hard to see...

If you find this little guy again, maybe try shading him with a piece of paper or get him into a shadowy area to avoid this type of overexposure.

Very cute - though the older boy looks a little too aware of the camera! Nice tonal range and sharpness, good shot.

I love the use of grain in this photo, it really adds to the 'creepy' feeling.

I like the colors you got here - the edges on the hill on the right look a little soft, though.

Nice composition...

I like what you were trying to accomplish here, but I'm distracted by the strong shadow and the lack of contrast. Maybe some more lighting would help?