I knew this one was going to be tough. In my opinion almost every shot presented was capable of winning. It's also a more difficult subject to apply the usual "rules" to. So I downloaded all the shots (there were more than 40!) and reviewed them a number of times, slowly deleting files till I had what I thought were the best.

Before we go through the winners I'd like to comment on the group in a general way. A couple of things I looked at were exposure, saturation (over doing it) and PP as well as the rule of 3rds, distracting elements, dust on the shot/sensor and sharpening (or too much). Sometimes the rules don't apply but that's what I was looking at.

My intent was to have as many people enter and get in the spirit of things. To get some of the members that don't often join in. I think in that regard, this was a success.

So there's a large group of Honorable Mentions. All of which could easily be the best presented for this challenge.

It was fun and I wish everyone a Happy New Year and great shooting in 2008.

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

Marc, Great shot in many respects. Love the colour and natural look to the light. Just wish there were no houses in the tree line.


schmikey, What can I say? Love the shot and the abstract nature of it.


Julie_B, Just a beautiful image with wonderful colours and the trees are nice and sharp. Great clouds.


GWP, Great shot with fantastic colour and clouds, I just wish the sun didn't bleed into the hillside.


ricardobeat, Very nice take on the theme. A little earlier in the day than a 'sunset' but it works well. I would have preferred to see the rocks a bit more (not so dark).

[Peter Zack]

I appreciate the mention. And, to answer your question, yes I do believe the boat is a bit of a distraction. I'm just not good enough in PSE to "clone" it out or whatever. LOL.

Rob

Rob, I took the liberty of giving it a try. I'm using the smaller Jpeg so this could be better but here's a quick 5 minute removal attempt. So it can be done.

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Last edited by Peter Zack; 06-14-2008 at 08:56 AM.

[mtnbearhug]

Congrats to everyone... especially the winners!!!

Good job Pete on definately a difficult task..

Thanks for the honor of being the winner out of all of these great shots. I must fess up that this image was not a once in a life time shot, as the grasshopper is dead. My son found it laying in our yard and I ended up gluing it to a piece of ornamental grass. I also used some stiff monofilament line that I colored with a black marker for the antennas, as the real antennas were rather wrinkled and ugly.

PS: I'll wait a couple of days before starting a new challenge to see if I get bumped from the winners circle by popular demand.

I think this just makes the pic better... the creativity that is shows on your part is Awesome!!!

and no need to wait a couple days.... We are all anxious to get the next contest started!!!

[Flaco]

congrats

[LaRee]

I was impressed with all of the entries in this weekly challenge. I am also impressed with Peter for taking this job on!! Tim, a well deserved win indeed. You deserve extra bragging rights for all the work you did to set it up!
Thanks for the great theme Peter. I hope you didn't have to polish off too much to narrow down the winners.

[gpaual]

way to go everyone.....obviously a difficult challenge to judge out..........so many excellant photographs