I am glad you did it... and NAILED IT! It looks much, much better, and the branch looks real. What an improvement my friend. Good luck!

Perfect fix

I am a great fan of chiaroscuro and this is so appropriate for this image which speaks to us through shadows of history. It feels old and damp and has a deep rich history. It is too bad you cut off the halo and tip of the statue's head but it is a photo full of history.

Hurray for the ethnic Slavic groups, many groups, many eggs all delight us with their artistry as does your photograph.

Peeking over the shoulder POV highlights her sketch. Can't help but notice the camera too .

Yes, the sky has that magical mercifulness to it.

very good well done

Not many people put up photos of people praying or worshipping so I take my hat off to you for being brave. I love photos like this that tell us a story of another place, another time, another culture. Had her eyes been on the incense or on the statuette it would have been a more powerful image. Our photography teachers used to tell us sometimes it is worth waiting for the photograph to be born. I still like this shot and think it is an excellent entry.

This photograph makes me immediately wish I could be there, it is inviting and you did well in composing it. There is a humble beauty to this image, you could make it more dramatic by punching out the clouds but that is only a suggestion. I like it in it's unpretentious mode too.

Pysanky, now why didn't I think of that! A nice snapshot of these eggs which take forever to make by talented Ukrainians!

Good entry though. I have some suggestions, if you want to make your entry better. I do not mean it is bad, on the contrary.
1- I see that you used two different kinds of trees one to make the branch coming to the left, and the one that is the main branch of the tree.

2- Well, I can tell you that the branch to the left, is thicker than the main branch. Usually branches that are merging are the same thickness of the main. Sometimes you have some thinner ones. And the branch of course looks much different. If you pull this branch to the right side of the main branch, just to the edge of your frame, it will look more credible, as if it came from another tree. Or.... take a little color off, to match the color of the main branch, make it thinner, and merge the two together. Cloning will help.

I respect your work, this is my own idea.... Good luck !

Congratulations, lovely photo.

Good one this,showing the boat in this way,shows someone knows how to take photos

Congrats for winning

Sweet sweet sweet, congratulations.

What a smile inducing image, what creativity not only on your part for seeing this but on the part of the artist who did this. I like the way you composed this photograph with the bench in the middle, it is an artistic composition. You did nip off part of the limb on the L side (our L) but that is really very slight. A very enjoyable view.

Showing artistry of the craft. A photograph well taken but would have been more striking had you eliminated the elements which tend to take our eyes away from the sweater, such as the pattern on the floor, the brown patterned material to our L of the frame. With a solid background this beautiful sweater would have jumped off the screen and hit us between the eyes. It is a great entry for the contest.

This was a really good entry. I always have a soft spot for surfing images. BWR = Big Wave Rider.

We need a surfing emoticon

Congrats Sylvie, she looks sweet.

The gray sky really adds to the tranquility of the scene. Well balanced.

Tiny nit pick... the metal horse would be "behind" the other horses with the shadow it's casting.. not that it messes up the image, just saying. Great chop all around

Crisp and clear this entry made me say "howdedodat"...great imagination, top notch. and nice work. I cannot find any flaws or telltale signs of manipulation.

Like your point of view, shooting from below to catch the noble feel of this handsome boat. A portrait crop would have worked to further enhance that feeling of nobility. Sharp and well exposed it is a very lovely photograph to study.

Sometimes as viewers of photography we can hear an image as well as see it. This photograph is noisy of birdsong (gulls) . A common scene well caught. I also think you did well to place the boat to the side and have given her room to drift into.

I love rainy days and finding this kind of visual stimulation. The fact that the little canoe is filled with water adds to the "awww" effect of the image. Technically also well done with sharpness, natural saturation and good placement within the frame.

From the compositional style to the crop to the "in your face" presentation this image is solidly organized by a photographer who understands their "rules" of photographic composition. I like it for the initial visual impact it gives me.

Wooaaaahhh, this is really good. It is so full of visual impact, the colours are striking, the fact you have a human adds interest, sharp, delightful. I love this.

I also think your photoshop manipulations are grrrrrrrrreat. I'm just learning that and find it really challenging.

Upside down yoga pants

Dream on..

Yes, the iron work really pops. You are an out of the box thinker...nice.

S for shoe which is slipping out of the frame. It was you intention to tilt this and add a bit more excitement? It is too bad the toe has been clipped off.

I like the 'classy' feel to this, not only the V shaped pendant but you showed a bit of purse behind and that makes us sit up in our chair. Good DOF use.

How multi-cultural!

Or V

Clever, clever

The bar code is clever.

Now author.. that's just cruel!
(chortle)

I love pictures of subjects that are abandoned. This is so moody

I would have named it the same.

You really captured the personality of the animal and the setting is spot on.

INDIA, well blow me down. I'm going to look it up right now...thank you.

WEEEEEEE!!!!

The facial lines and expression give great depth to this shot.

Oh how I wish you had told us which university this is. A place to relax and de-stress. Ansel Adams once said that no matter how beautiful an image/landscape is if you place humans in the frame that is immediately where our eyes go...and so it is with this upload. I like it quite a bit.

Lately I have seen photos that are intentionally tilted, and the horizon is waaaaay off but the excitement is added with that unconventional composition. I have a feeling that had you tilted this hither and dither it would have worked. This one is nice and sharp so your shutter speed was smack on the money.

Good strong carnival character

Great timing

Author, somehow I deleted your reply. If you look below the DA image you used, it says "Apophysis and Photoshop." Sometimes DA images can be tricky. The replacement you found works just as well, so good luck!