jcomley - wonderfully bold creative artistic spin on the image. it reflects the turmoil of my soul with this image when i first got home with it and tried to turn it into something that it could not be, thanks to the wrong light and dry conditions when I was there.
johnhilvert - you first entry is my fave of the three. a nice interpretation. the other two look like out of the box experimentations that free the mind but are rather bizarre at the same time haha..
iheiramo - really like your tight crop, exposure and filtering choices
astonm - i knew immediately your entry would be in contention for the prize. the thoughtful crop, coloring/filtering, use of blur for selective focus and detail enhancement on the tree combine to give it a medium format film look that i am particularly fond of. you had to sacrifice one of my favorite aspects of the image, which is the detail of the limb that goes across the top right of frame, but it was worth it.
MikeStnly - thanks for taking on the challenge! a fresh creative duotone take on the scene. i like your approach to solving the problems of the image, diffusing them with a strong emphasis on the dominant tones of the image, and using the potential of the foreground details to tie them together.
D1N0 - can't quite remember your entry from before you deleted it.. i remember liking it though
Glenn5995 - was getting worried you weren't going to enter this round! you showed up though and didn't dissappoint. i like all three crops and choose #1 as my fave of your entries. i appreciate how you addressed the fun upper left area and filled it in and nice blended in way.i really like how you tightened the view without entirely losing the wide angle perspective.
BigMackCam - ideally i'd get a third option from your entries combining what I like about both. i prefer the slightly increased dynamic range or 'less flat' look of the first entry, and like the way you "enclosed" the second entry. i like that you took the liberty to add BD to add prominence to the tree. that of course wouldn't be appreciated as much by the lens designers who went to great lengths to minimize that effect haha. So I pick your first entry and call it a top contender.
dlneubec - the tree is a little dark for me in V1 so agree that V2 is a creative take from the image and I like it.
I am going to keep this simple and use the judging criteria often used in one of my favorite shows, Masterchef (Australia). When it's a close call they ask themselves which dish they'd go back for. For me, as you can probably tell from the way I often process, I tend to go after detail enhancement. Here for example was my take on the image... I was and am far from happy with this particular cook, but it does reflect what I want to convey most, which is a bold presentation of the tree details:
So I am passing the baton once again to
astonm. Fabulous rendition. Congrats! Thanks to everyone for enduring this tough to process image and contributing interesting entries.