THIRD PLACE WINNER
Total judging points: 30
Judge's Comments:
1. This striking image of pitcher plants at autumn has a lot of "pop." The composition is pleasing and the colors make this a strong image. Focus stacking might have brought the plant in the back of the arrangement more into the image. The distracting light green points of light behind the arrangement and, likewise, the light leaves on the right could be reduced in intensity. The plant in the lower right corner does nothing for this image and should be cropped/cloned out.
2. This is an enchanting rendering. I love how the photographer has chosen to backlight the scene, giving the leaves an almost luminescent quality and showing us far more detail than might otherwise be visible. My only suggestion would be to crop out the right two-thirds of this image and show just the single plant at the left. The plants on the right are not nearly as sharp or as appealing (particularly those that appear to be shriveled), and including them distracts from the more graceful, more “perfect” plant on the left. Just this simple crop would make this image a home run.
5. Centering the subjects would improve the composition. Or, crop from the right.