As soon as the judges have made their top ten selections, their critiques will be added to this thread. The voting poll will be posted at that time also. In the meantime, post your own personal feedback and favorites here.

The challenge theme was: Splendor or Squalor

Your judges were:
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richtersl - Feedback

Congratulations to you all for a fine round.

It was not easy narrowing down my list to just 10. But here they are in the order that they were posted:


#6 - Glencoe, Scotland - cbsnet
Your photo makes me wish I was in Scotland enjoying this view in person. The clouds look a bit hot in places, but not enough to be a huge distraction. The pano crop accentuates the mountain details and cloud shadows very well.

#8 - Slim Pickn's - KarrieMcD
Holy cow! This is absolutely fabulous. The sepia tone you used was perfect for this composition. Very emotional shot.

#12 - Gearhead Dreams - Travis
Nice post-processing. I like the sheen on the car and the way you vignetted the photo to pull the viewer into the scene. Love the colorful reflections on the rear bumper.

#14 - Night Bloom under a Red Moon - Glory2JesusPhotography
I don't know what your light source is, but its effect on the lily is superb. Gorgeous shot!

#20 - Candlelight - Michael Atkins
This is a delight to look at. Even the background, though subtle, is an interesting study in and of itself. The candlelight was well captured and nicely reflected.

#32 - Morning Glow - vandana
The golden hues are nice and rich in the macro shot. I like how you can clearly make out the tips of 2 of the stamens and how the rest of them just seem to melt into the flower.

#33 - Trump Tower - VisualExpressions
Nice capture. Would like to have seen a bit more detail in the clouds but the perspective plus the details you captured in the golden reflection won me over.

#40 - Glorious Morning - Roaddog 52
You nailed the essence of a chilly morning well in this shot. The sunlight on the mountain immediately draws your eye to the main focal point, but not without a short delightful stop in the field of purple flowers in the foreground.

#44 - Decaying Organ Steps Silences Sacred Harmonies - swintonphoto
Your exposure is spot-on! The composition is centered, but rules were meant to be broken and I like the way you broke them.

#48 - Faith Abandoned - CSwinton
Very emotional and mysterious photo that makes you wonder what happened to that congregation. The central composition works for me because it makes you wonder if anyone will ever walk through those doors again to come and worship there. The light in the windows looks a bit hot, but I like how it's illuminating the floor and ceiling.
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Greensquared - Feedback

#2 - crayzphotography - Favorite Filthy Habit
This image has a wonderful feel to it. The darkness of the image supports
the theme, as well as the tilted head, rough fingers and sheltering hand.
Almost as though there is shame in the stance. My only nit here is that the
focus is on the nose ad not on the cigarette.

#4 - Pilzner - Opulent Squalor
I love this image. Great leading lines, awesome repetition of arch shape,
good textured detail.

#8 - KarrieMcD - Slim Pickn's
WOW. I don't know if this was posed in anyway, but I kinda hope so since it
would be so tragic as a reality. The filth is evident, the decay and
sorrow, desolation. Perfect pp choices. Bang on theme, fantastic in every
way.

#12 - Travis - Gearhead Dreams
Totally great feel to this one. A little confused about the orange and
yellow reflection on the trunk (hat?), but otherwise a pleasing image.

#13 - cmorganphotography - Muddy Misdemeanor
Very well shot, great DOF, lovely exposure...and you totally owe your model
for this one! :)

#20 - Michael Atkins - Candlelight
Bizzare to see this subject when it's 90 degrees outside, but still,
extremely well done. It definitely works for the theme though.

#22 - HumphreyCogay - After The Demolition
Very powerful image. It appears as though you were shooting through a
screen of sorts and it's unfortunate that the face fell in such a dark area.
Also, I think you could crop off the left side of the dwellig and off
center your subject, while still maintaining the strength of the message.

#33 - VisualXpressions - Trump Tower
Total grandeur for sure. Well shot too!

#40 - Roaddog52 - Glorious Morning
This was the only one that really nailed my vision of splendor. A tad over-saturated perhaps, but it works and I'd hang it on my wall.

#48 - CSwinton - Faith Abandoned
I realized this and your brother's were the same spot, his was just one corner of the room. Although his is very nice as well, in the end, this was the stronger of the two for me.

Karrie McD- Slim Pickn"s.....Karrie....I wish that it were more a true black and white rather than the warm tint. It is almost as if you tried to pretty-it-up....but....that is my nit-pick. I think it is the one image in the bunch that nails the theme best. A moving journalistic styled capture.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Good luck everyone. My picks:

Thank you for including my filthy, half zombie, half vampire, mud woman in your picks, Peters. I think you have saved the human race by putting a lot of street junk and a car on top of her. "You'll never get my brains zombie!"

My top nine in no particular order - all excellent shots. Well done.

Originally Posted by jeffreaux2 Karrie McD- Slim Pickn"s.....Karrie....I wish that it were more a true black and white rather than the warm tint. It is almost as if you tried to pretty-it-up....but....that is my nit-pick. I think it is the one image in the bunch that nails the theme best. A moving journalistic styled capture. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thank you very much!

I tint my black and whites A LOT .... I don't know why -but I usually like the tint much better. I think sometimes black and whites seem too blue or something

In No Particular Order...Good Luck To all Entrants.

Here's My top ten pick in no particular order. There are fantastic images in
this challenge. I always come out of these challenges learning something new. This was fun and challenging.

Opulent Squalor by Pilznr
Slim Pickn's by Karrie McD
Gearhead Dreams By Travis
Muddy Misdemeanor by CMorganphotography
The Storm cometh by tsk1979
Candlelight by Michael Atkins
Dry Coulee Paradise by scas
Morning glow by Vandana
Trump Tower by VisualXpressions
Glorious Morning by roaddog 52

Originally Posted by Karrie McD

Thank you for including mine in your top ten Karrie. I am honored.
P.S. Is there a link on how to make these collages?

excited to see my entry in two of the top tens so far. Thanks!

These are my favorite images. I think they all address the theme well, and have great aesthetic qualities as well. Nice job everyone.

The Squalor entries this round fit the theme SO well, but I guess my eyes are more drawn to Splendor..

Originally Posted by jrnylst The Squalor entries this round fit the theme SO well, but I guess my eyes are more drawn to Splendor..

Thanks a bunch for including me :)

Only 4 jumped out at me.
In no particular order, here are my picks.

what a nice thing to see after work, thank you for including me in your favs - womanwithacamera, tentacion, karrie mcd, pemmett, and peters.

Wow! Thank you Donna and MrsCue for including me in your favorites! That was unexpected. I'm still practicing shooting waterfalls and am not exactly pleased with the results of this attempt but thought that I would throw it in the mix anyways.

Here are my Top Ten.



— Kevin

I lost my freebie PS, so I will just have to list. Thanks KevXman for the fav!

karrie mcd: slim pickns
rhommel: her
giphsub: former splendor
michael: candlelight
pyry: war wounds
peters: me time
roaddog: glorious morning
cswinton: abandoned
jyrnlst: my world
sunita: god's kingdom.

Thanks for those of you that selected mine for your top pics but unfortunately I failed to realize the time and date was not set in the camera I used so it was DQ'd.

I support the DQ as it was my fault.

Thanks again though.

Thank you to Peter, Pemmett, Karrie, Tentacion, WomanWithACamera, and KevXman for placing Gearhead Dreams in your top picks. A special thank you to Nikolai for a much needed kick in the pants when I started to slacken off.

There were some incredible entries this round for both sides of the theme. I think the judges did well with what had to be a tough selection to narrow down the field. Here are my picks....