Crosswords

This is a gorgeous shot! I really do love the DoF. Rats are amazing creatures, but are definitely a mission to get photos of :D

Thank you guys, and thanks for the critique! So happy to get second!

Very clever! Nice shot too :)

I like the idea and this image, but there's a couple of things that could have improved it. I'm not particularly sure about the shoe resting on the bottom of the photo, maybe a little black under it? It's a bit unfortunate that the logo is covering the shoe.
I would also like to have seen a crop that either focused the shoe in a full frame photo (eg. the top cropped off a little) or have added more black space to the photo, to help lead you in to the shoe as a main subject.

Although you may want a bit more reassurance than just my comment, I'm not particularly sure if I'm fully correct but in my opinion that is what I would have like to see. But it has a very nice subject, focus and lighting.

Brilliantly done! Congrats on the win :)

This really is gorgeous, the composition and lighting is brilliant, I really hope it's in the top three (it certainly should be).

This is just so gorgeous!

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Thanks :3

Also thank you so much for the comment on the star :D

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I've tried to put the exposure up but there's quite a few bushes down the front and I'm not particularly keen on them being there.

Unfortunately, there was one of those large lights (similar to the one in the middle third) that was to the right of me and I had to position the camera in such a way that it wouldn't create an annoying glare to the right, and that's why I couldn't position it to the left because it would have blown out the photo's exposure :(

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Oh dear, I knew that! I get things mixed up and meant cheetah, I can't believe I get these things wrong ):

Congrats on the win, I just know it!

I would have liked the tip of the trophy in focus (or much more of it at least, but I'm assuming that with your higher ISO [it's a tad grainy] the lighting conditions were hard for a smaller aperture). A tripod would fix much of this. I also would have under-exposed it a bit more to get rid of the fold in the cloth under the trophy.

Gorgeous detail.

What a lovely DOF, and a macro shot too!

What a cool idea! Congratulations on the gold, this must have taken a long time to do!

I really love the flowy effect :)

Amazing! Congrats on the 1st, I had a feeling this was going to get it - a good feeling of course :)

I really love the composition!

I would have done that, and I was hoping to until I realized that I had forgotten my tripod ;_;

Thanks :)

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They kept falling down whenever I even attempted to fit them behind his ears :(

That is very cool! I was going to do carrots for this contest too until I saw that the closing date was today :( Good luck though.

I really like the reflection on this! I'd like to see the rings on focus though.

Now that looks difficult to stack!

Very cool, and the colours are brilliant. Just one thing though, I think the focal point could have been on the 82° circle otherwise I'm not so sure what I'm focusing on.

I'd like to see a crop on the top of the image where the stack ends. Also maybe bump up the contrast or work on the images curves as I don't see shadows and I feel like I'm sort of glaring into the sun a little.

That must have been very hard to stack! I'd like to see the top chocolate in focus rather than the second couple though :)

I have to ask though, how did you get that to stay up!