Judging begins today by our panel of judges. The judges are not required to submit critiques, but if they do, it will be posted here after the announcement of the winner. In the meantime, post your own personal feedback and favorites here.

The challenge theme was: The Elements

Your judges were:

DavidTO, schmoo, Lord Vetinari, Richard & Greensquared

This was a tough round and as there were a limited number of replies I decided to choose my top four favourites. Well done to everyone who participated.

One question? Are we doing a "behind the scenes"....or...."how it was done"? Here or another thread?

....In the mean time, the competition was stiff, as expected. There were also a good many threads with folks trying to get a nod for this shot or the other...which indicates that maybe I wasn't the only one who originally drew a blank when faced with..."The Elements". That was a comfort!

In no particular order, my top five favorites. Well, other than my own of course!

My five faves are: pemmett, Nikolai, CuriousCamel, fashiznwhatsitz, aaronnelson ... I thought pemmett's was the strongest overall. I may do a full critique over the next couple of days.

And thanks jeffreaux! Glad you liked my effort enough for your top five.

Glad I am not one the judges, Awesome entries everyone! First class all the way!!!

I see a lot of night sweats and nail bitting on with this one.

My favorites.


Man, what a challenge! Both figuratively and literally!! So many talented photogs - I was sweating bullets waiting for all of you to submit your entries and then the panic set in once they started showing up.

Beautiful and creative images from each and every one of you - it was great that ya'll set the bar so high... it really helped me gain confidence and learn more about photography.

Emily has her work cut out for her, that's for sure. Imagine having to judge two of these? Holy cow!

Originally Posted by richtersl Emily has her work cut out for her, that's for sure. Imagine having to judge two of these? Holy cow!

Heck, she can do it with her eyes closed nowadays

What a round this was!

Tungsten No, 74 (jeffreaux2) - The PTOE as the background is super, and the filament is great. Something about the bulb placement in the composition bothers me slightly.

Summer's Last Breeath (eoren1) - Georgous background! The 'wind farm' may be just a touch too busy and it just feels like they should have been oriented more to the left of the composition. Still, this is a great product and I like it quite a bit.

Broken For Humanity (JAG) - This is quite nice! Not too busy, great background and use of a mirror. I even like the glowing cross in the cup (symbolism: San Greal or Sang Real?).

Human Elements (jeffmeyers) - Neat concept! Well executed and the composition is very nice. It feels sparse though a little bit. I think if you could have gotten a few more figurines in such as a couple of kids or someting, it would have been even stronger.

The Fifth Element (davev) - After I got over my little private 'Time is the Fourth Dimension, SPIRIT is the Fifth Element!' moment , I quite liked this one! It felt just a bit overprocessed and the shadows were too dark.

Rekindled (llywellyn) - Wow! The only thing I didn't love about this was the flame, such an excellent concept well carried out!

Sonoran Monsoon (dlplumer) - Beautiful! I believe we called those things 'Toad Stranglers' in Texas when I lived there Not much to improve on here.

Thanks for the heads up Nick! The smaller font size was great on my work monitor, but I have the same problem with it being too small here on my home monitor :) Apologies everyone

Originally Posted by VelvtRide

Yay! Nail-biting smiley!

Oh, THAT"S what that was ... coool :)

I can only say that I'm glad that I'm not judging this challenge. I couldn't pick just one. So...



— Kevin

Originally Posted by KurtPreston Heck, she can do it with her eyes closed nowadays

Eenie, Meenie, Mienie...Mo!

Trial By Fire (AaronNelson) - Just lovely! The only thing missing was Pteradactls. It's not so much to ask for, I think. This IS a DSS Mega Challenge after all . Kidding aside, I love this one ... wish I had taken it.

Water, controls fire, formed in air, and feeds the earth (fashiznitswhosit) - What a beautiful triptych! And I generally am very ambivalent about triptychs. The only thing I think might make this cooler is if you could make it so that some of the droplets overlapped into a neighboring panel.

An Element of Surprise (Nikolai) - This is the other one I seriously wish I had taken. Such an inventive take on the theme! It perfectly portrays that blissful moment in time just before you rudely find out that nothing in life is free

Maculation (NikonsandVstroms) - Just plain cool! My only gripe is that the shadow area at the bottom is just too dark for my taste. The watter exploding out is devine though.

So Much for Homework (shatch) - Does your fount of creativity ever run dry? So inventive and well executed! The only nit is that your daughter deserves a spotlight or two, she's seems a bit muted. The paper flying out of the frame is a great touch by the way.

Thanks for having me in your top five, kevin!

Originally Posted by AaronNelson /// dang it, i have one on my private island...i didnt think to use him for the shoot.... thanks for the kind words!

ROFL!

First, thanks to pemmett, VelvtRide, richtersl for including my pinwheels in their favorites and to KurtPreston for the detailed critique!

My favorite 5 from this round:
jeffreaux2 - Tungsten No 74
Llywellyn - Rekindled
fashiznitsngrins - Water...
VelvtRide - Arsenic and Old Lace (my top pick)
The Curious Camel - Priceless

Great round everyone!!!
E

Thanks KevXman and eoren1 for putting me in your favorites!