Thanks Lilliy,

as I said in the first post, these poppies are addictive By all means have another go. Since they are in your garden you have the opportunity to shoot at different lighting conditions, which should be interesting.

Not sure that I share your judgement on the appeal of the bugs in my poppy shots. There were just too b****y many of them. I have a few shots of the field from further away and when I first opened them on my computer I thought I had gazillions of dust specks on the sensor. Of course, it only were the bugs doing their bug thing and flying around.

Prieni

Lilly,

I think it does look better (although I can't see the first posted pic anymore). I like it. With loads of time at your hand you could have done a series showing how it unfolds
Concerning the single bug, it didn't bother me too much. Want to know why? Look here :
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4827&highlight=

Prieni

Very nice, Lilly!

The top is perhaps a bit hot but the colours are wonderful. I think poppies are addictive as a photographic subject as well...

Cheers,
Prieni

My pleasure Tim, aren't they stunning images? Sometimes I wish I could find my style but then I think that it might limit me. And hey, it's a hobby after all...

Did you mean something like this?

http://www.fotocommunity.com/pc/pc/mypics/574065

Stunning images that look like they have been treated to a lot of PP.

Tim,

tough job judging this and you chose the right winner IMHO. My entry, BTW, is in fact a shot of a real scene, taken from the local lighthouse. And yes, blur layer used to create a shallow DOF as you would get from a macro shot.
You can find a few more of these shots at
http://picasaweb.google.com/Prieni/FakeModelPhotos
and also the link to the tutorial that "inspired" me to try:
http://recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

niblue,
congratulations to this wonderful shot. I think it fits the theme brilliantly!

All,
well done, some good shots again!

Prieni

A scale model of my town, complete with toy cars and all..

What are the rules regarding camera? Does it have to be a Pentax shot? I have something fitting but took it with my C*non P&S (ok, have to go and wash my mouth with soap now...)

Looks fine on a sunny day, at least. What happens if the sun is not shining?

Good luck for your shoot Pete,
Prieni

In general I think the shallow DOF works fine in your pictures. In #3 I would have preferred the focus a bit closer to you.
In #2 the red tulips are a bit too dark for my taste, I would try a curves adjustment on this.
In #5 (and #7) the reds look a bit flat, i.e. not much detail in the petals, perhaps you should darken this a bit. I guess some of the detail is lost on the conversion from AdobeRGB to sRGB. Have a look at #9, I think it's just right there.