you have a way with things...and i love this! i seriously need to learn some of these lighting effects...you create such a mood with your works. GL!

give it time. everyone gets worried about the amount of votes, but until the end of the voting time, you won't see what those votes actually mean. Really, its the quality of the vote, not the quantity of votes placed.
Good Luck on your entry even though...and be patient. you'll notice a huge turn around in voting over the weekend. :P

beautiful colors! and i love the composition!!!!

i don't think i would have cropped this so tightly..would have been better to get the entire stamen in the shot... its kinda like cutting the top of someones head off in a portrait. :P

the petals almost have a waxy look to them. awesome shot..and i love how you off centered the shot leaving a little more black background showing. nicely done!

i love the texture on this one..the center of the flower is just amazing!

its amazing.

it is delicate..and they look like incredibly tiny flowers..one thing..on a shot this close, there is a tiny bit of motion you can see if you focus on the petals...caused a little blur. just being nitpicky. :P

this is lovely. the color and the texture of the petals!!! its just beautiful!

this is a beautiful shot. seems you used a trick in some saturation toggles.... i'd love to know how you did it. its quite breathtaking!

i love how transparent the petals are...you can catch a peek of the sky through them.

i like the positioning of this shot. the feeling it gives me. the fact you didn't focus on the face of the flowers but aprofile instead. and your point of focus is amazingly clear. it would be lovely in a black frame hanging on my wall!

i LOVE these flowers. have a ton of them in my front yard.

i think i might have changed the title to "straw flowers"...

agrees also. :P

how did you achieve that stretched-blurred look in the background? really sets the center focus! nicely done!

wow! even if this flower has seen its last days, its still an amazing texture. and your d.o.f is quite nice!

i agree with chalty. part of the kitties ear got lost in the selecting, and you could have blended the pot just a tiny bit more...seems on the right hand edge, you lost part of the pot in the transferring :P its a cute entry, and you've got tons of time to fix it up.

i'm confused. i don't see the source at all...
your animals are kinda distorted. and...well...the shadows are wrong. correct me if i'm wrong, but did you use the source image.

High score for the humor factor alone. i love it. Good luck to you!

a definite "AWWWWW" factor. love this!!!!

yes, it is. on the authors comments, where she lists her name, there is a copyright sign right next to her name. its not even available for download.

you could have used that webbing in the square competition! OMG..look how amazing that is! even if its alittle OOF....

*shiftyeyes* i meant as to what i really thought of the photo! leave it to you to pull a technicality. :lol: i guess what i meant is... one person has a shadow. the other has half a shadow. yet..i'm sure its the same person. clothing and all. i just wanted to know how you achieved that. because...the bushes in the foreground are complete shadows. its not an entirely "mirrored" shot at all.

mirrored building? okay..explain that one...before i make any comment at all.

awesome. i can't really think of what else to say except that you did a phenomenal job making it look entirely natural in that setting! Good Luck!!!

i loved this game when i was a kid!!! nice job, and an original take on the source!

i love this one! added to my favs!!! Good Luck to you!

this is wayyyyyy cute! love the idea and the whole makeup job is awesome. Good Luck!

awesome makeup job!!! and i think the one thing that hurts this shot is the flash. maybe messing about with the curves and such will help that... Locks has some great pointers!
Good Luck!

ummm...i don't really see any makeup here.

i really love this shot... but i have to second steve's request. it would be lovely to see this in hi res.

:giggle: totally outof place.. and i'm betting the owner of that camera was more than a little upset....actually, considering one of the comments, i know he was. :lol:

did the camera survive? looks like its all intact still.

high res would be nice... the sparkle on the petals would be amazing in high res!!! :O

i keep coming back and looking, so that says something. :P if this is the full size shot..well... hmm. kinda ruins the cropping suggestion. because there isn't much room for a different crop. :P did you do any post editing to this? perhaps lower the brightness and up some of the black levels to bring more attention to the center focus (of course, the flower)...might help to tone down some of the background. *shrug* i dunno. :P

I wouldn't crop out the buds forming..that helps make this shot. the shocks of green next to that bright orange-ish color are something!

i love the colors! the sparkle on the petals is amazing.

with kyricom on that...something else... did you try taking a shot from..a slightly different angle? perhaps instead of focusing on the face of the flower itself, angle to the side, so you get a little more of the body of the bud...and then off center the picture a bit so that you take in account some basic rule of thirds. helps to set off a shot.
i do love how the leaves of this rose plant are multi colored as well. adds to the "tropic" part of your title. beautiful rose

how did you get the color in this? seems to be almost completely desaturated, but... yet there is green tones. i know my canon does in camera selective coloring, perhaps thats how you achieved that look?

this is lovely. not just the texture and the composition of the shot, but..the amazing color of the hibiscus. its like...sherbet colored!

cherry blossom or apple tree blossom. definitely not a lilac that i've ever seen.

I like how you did this one. most people don't realize it, but floral shots are better when they aren't looking directly at the face of the flower, but more from a side point. the texture on the center of this poppy is beautiful, and the bokah in the background is awesome. Good luck!

i think i would have cropped this differently. its a lovely shot.. i had a rose that same color in my yard two summers ago. its been replaced by one similar with pink edging to it.

a little saturated, but a lovely shot. a christmas cactus???

i agree with ade..a high res would be nice. and kyricom on the signature...i honestly thought this was a picture of a print when i first saw it. high res would make it easier to see the quality of this shot.

the high res on this shot is something to be appreciative of. i dig the tagging on the wall...the things that people who came before you left as messages. "this is paradise" on one part and "death to tourists" on another...quite the contradiction. but.. nicely done. i keep sayin i'm going to try hdr just to say i did it. Good luck!

whats the story behind this??? its got me curious now!

this is cool. nice concept. it would be awesome to see this floating in a long island ice tea at the end of the day nice job!

this is what a kidnapper would say after meeting my kids. *giggle*

i'd love to give you a few pointers on this shot..and some ideas to put in your pocket for the next venture you will come acrossed, as i'm sure you'll do plenty. with the floral thing...the last thing you want is your hand holding them up in front of you...they don't stay still that easily for a good and true "close-up", which tends to put a bit of a blur on the subject. since these have already been cut, you could have easily set up a shot on a better background, using more natural light. Learn to depend alot on natural light because when you are just starting out, a flash can often times be too harsh on a subject leaving the dark shadows cast on the wall and hand in this one. perhaps arrange these flowers in indirect sunlight and then be sure you are steady when you shoot the picture. on a close up, sometimes manual focusing helps more than the auto focus feature. don't know if any of that is helpful to you, but... Just thought i'd pass along a few bits of what little i know.

high res is the ONLY way to appreciate the art in this. look at the detail in those contact lenses!!!! nicely done.