mbkissel

Looks almost like HDR or a painting, Jim.  Love the colors in the water and the earthy gold tones in the cliff.  My only nit is the white structure up on the cliff top.  My eye keeps landing there and gets stuck.  But the framing of the cliffs is perfect as is, and it is unavoidable to leave the white structure in the frame (or clone it out?).  Overall, gives me a feeling of immense relaxation from a terrific spot to soak in the beauty of the place.  Nice work!

Rick, I really like your other ice crystal shot better than this one.  The dark brown and tan out of focus bits on the left are distracting to the overall composition.  I like the texture in the berry and the detail in the crystalline structure.  Nice work!

Hi Doug,

What a lovely photo!

I think the tilted horizon is a bit distracting.  It appears nearly at the center (vertically) of the frame rather than at the rule of thirds. The dark land mass in the foreground doesn't add to the image. 

Regardless of my meager ramblings, it is still a beautiful shot.

Siegfried,

Believe me, there was a lot of luck working for me that day.  Thanks for your nice comment.

Mark

Perfect timing really shows detail in the wing feathers.  Background colors are very pleasing to the eye.  Minor nitpick: the two bright areas, one below the left wingtip and the other just in front of the wings at the bottom, are slightly distracting; would be easy to tone these areas back a bit in post.  This one gets a 7.  Nice work!   

Perhaps the ladybug is too centered in frame?  I like everything else about the photo.  Colors are nice, good background, diagonals add nicely to the composition.

Wonderful colors in this one!  Very pleasing to the eye.   Nice work.

Superb! Love the background.

Perfect focus and framing.  There are three objects in the frame that I find slightly distracting: the bright object in the upper right, the slash shaped objects above the beak, and the lens flare? in the lower right.  Overall, a very nice photo.  Good job!

Terrific shot, Simon.  Nicely done.  Looks like one of the pier lights is burned out.

Bill, you're too kind, my friend.  It was a sunny day, and I felt the lighting was terrible.  I kept wandering around this garden trying to find the right spot to shoot from.  Occasionally the sun would hide behind a cloud and I would fire off a few frames.

Thanks, Lupo.  It was difficult to meter the shot right, and I lost some detail in the feathers.  I was lucky to get this shot, as the egret flew away seconds after I shot this.

Thanks!  The fish never saw it coming!

I don't usually see them this close, Bill.  This fellow just strutted over and posed nicely for the portrait.  Take a look at the larger version for the detail if you didn't already.  Thanks!

Superb!  Love the teardrop shape.  Placement, focus, and exposure all perfect.  Nicely done, Roberta.

Perfect macro!  Color, composition, focus...all perfect.  Love the lighting.  Excellent.

Beautiful lighting.  Petals take on a glow and still appear soft.  Very nicely done!

Thanks, Bill!  I hope you clicked on the image again to see the larger version.  This, of course, was a captive grizzly at our local zoo.  We don't have them natively here in NC.  Usually they just lay around, in very uninteresting poses, when I visit.  This was a cool, crisp fall day with some good lighting.  The grizzly looked up at me as if to say, "What are you waiting for?...press the shutter button".  As soon as I did, he went right back to his resting spot and laid down.

Very good!  Colors are perfect!  It appears there is some wispy smoke? in the background.  Just a bit distracting.  I wonder how this one would look with a little more of the dark foreground cropped out?

I like the photo a lot.  When I think "cowboy", this definitely springs to mind.

Just saw this one, Matt.  Makes me hungry just looking at it.  Yummy! 

The lighting looks just borderline too bright on my monitor.  I guess it's the illusion of that white plate rim.  I may have sprinkled a little paprika or some finely cut chives on the rim to tone it back a bit and add some color there.  Nicely done.  6/7

Saad, thank you so much for your kind words.  The world is so full of beauty that surrounds us.  I don't always recognize it when it is before me.  I hope I will have enough vision to see that beauty and capture some to share with others.

Nicely done, Ken.  I like the way the fallen tree leads my eye to the view framed by the two foreground trees.  The lighting is just right.

Thanks, Brett.  This was almost a "grab" shot.  I had just seconds before he jumped out of frame and flew away.

Nice lightning capture, Carlos.  I don't like the smeary looking right side; was this a touch up in post?