Wow, awesome images again. Another very tough choice. I'm bummed I did not get out to try my shot. I actually got one in Rocky Mtn. National Park, but I never found the time to download it from the camera--it did not come close to most of the awesome images here, so no loss :-). Inner Space is such a unique play on scale as it is a shadow for the scale comparison and my mind usually sees a shadow as being bigger than it's maker and thus, this makes the balloon seem extra huge. I know hot air balloons are huge, and this picture did a great job showing that. El Camino is so creative and perfectly executed. And, what an incredibly clean engine. Awesome idea and awesome shot. Perfect technique to capture 'Giant Fungi' - by the photographer getting down to the fungi level and making a good choice on focal length, that mushroom is huge. I like this one better than 'same stuff, different day' because the blue sky and green grass just makes the mushroom 'pop' in the picture. Excellent technique in 'the smallest bird in the world' made this shot as well. The viewer clearly understands that tiny object is on a finger - I love that you see the fingerprint lines so clearly; and having a tiny bit of the thumb in there, perfectly framed that shot, good job! Of Keith's two, I like 'on the edge' best as having the climbers against the blue sky draws you eye to them and focuses you on what the main subject of the picture is. Great framing on that one as it leaves your mind to imagine just how high that rock face is due to the conscious effort to frame out all other scale references (trees, the ground, etc.). On the flip side, Rick's 'Climbers at GOG 2' is my favorite of his because of foreground climber standing on the ground gives excellent reference for scale - great shot there. Finally, very creative set up on 'when the Mom's away, the bears will play'. That had to take a few shots to get that with the bear standing. What a fun shot. What will I vote on??? Oh, another tough choice. Thank you to all of you for making this choice so tough again!
I promise I will get back to my photography in the next three weeks. Yea, my work is subsiding a bit and now it's Keith's turn to work hard :-) So, if the kids will just cooperate, I can get out there and have some fun!
