diva
by mariowagner

Comment:
This really looks llike an indoor picture (that is a painting at the top left, no?). While one can have an indoor garden, I don't think one potted plant a garden makes.

leaf spider
by alterego

Comment:
While I can see what look like blurry stems and leaves behind this, it doesn't really give me a strong sense of being in a garden as I'd prefer. I think B&W may have been a poor choice for this; it seems to make it that much harder to pick out the details and I think colour may have added to the garden feel.

Gelatin Garden
by ramevi

Comment:
I'm torn here. On the one hand, I want to give you bonus points for finding a different way of handling the garden idea, and I even think your molds are fairly interesting looking. On the other, the instructions were quite explicit that one shouldn't have flowers as the main subject.

I may have to come back to this and decide later if I feel this badly violates the topical requirements or if I think this is a clever way around them.

No!
by Grandmom

Comment:
No objections to your actual choice (or title), but two comments:

1) Is that a cat hair on the apple? It sure looks like it. It's very distracting, regardless of what it is.

2) The apple looks a bit overly purple, which may well be all entirely natural but seems odd. Given what you're representing, I think you might have been better off with a redder variety.

My Garden Dwarf went on vacation
by arnit

Comment:
Okay... TECHNICALLY, that's "out of the garden", not "in" it... but in this case, I just don't care.

That having been gotten out of the way: This is HILARIOUS. I read a book once where someone stole a garden gnome (or something similar) and sent it on a trip around the world, and I thought it was funny then; this is obviously the photographic proof.

I think I might have turned him slightly water-wards -- not all the way; I can see why you'd want to get the face -- so that it more looks like he's sight-seeing, looking at what the viewer is looking at, and/or made him more centered as vacation photos tend to be, but given my scores, you probably shouldn't take my advice. :) (I would have liked it better one of those ways, though.)

Vine Ripe
by jas0420

Comment:
This is the first fruit (/veggie) picture I've seen that has actually captured my interest for more than the initial scan-and-vote, and yes, I'm a fair ways through voting. You made this a lot more interesting by use of the knife (seems a little clean to have just been used, btw, but maybe I'm missing it due to angle) and cut tomato; the garden gloves are also a nice touch.

I keep going back to the knife. I think the fact that it's as shiny as it is doesn't just bug me because it seems too clean but because it draws the eye away from the tomatoes, which I'd presume were more likely your main subject. Maybe the angle of blade could have been different -- I wouldn't change the light as I think it looks good as is -- or maybe a slightly less shiny knife would have been useful in this case.

In any event, overall I really like this. Even without the flowers in the background I would have thought of this as 'in' the garden with the other hints -- I've done almost the same thing, picked veggies and eaten them while still outside -- so it's a familiar idea to me. (And fresh, sun-warm, ripe tomatoes are yummy.)

Mill Stream Garden
by BAMartin

Comment:
This is an absolutely gorgeous picture. But I don't see how it qualifies as a garden, I'm afraid. If it were a primarily man-made scene instead of a natural one I might concede it was on topic, but that's not the case, is it.

Crafts 'n Things: Soapmaking
by qachyk

Comment:
Regarding the lighting:

Yeah, I saw how bright the molds ended up. In dim light they're just slightly whiter than the block of coconut soap, but they're EXTREMELY reflective and lowering the lighting more made the rest too dim. Spot-editing isn't allowed for the challenge, but it would be for a magazine shot, so I figured 'too bright' was better and easier to clean up, which I did for a lark along with assembling the cover fully. I'd post those but I've kinda lost interest in the idea. Maybe later, though.

Regarding labels:

Lots of magazines prefer to not show brand names on the cover because they don't want to endorse a specific magazine. Combine that with the fact that from the front you cannot tell those are coloured dyes, and the decision to turn them may make more sense.

I had some versions of this with a paler background but the soap didn't stand out well on it, so I reverted to this. The backdrop is a towel. My choices were that, black (which would be worse for emphasizing the brightness of the molds), and pale blue (which the soap was not as easily visible against it). I think if I'd had a softer red it would have worked out better, but alas I did not.

"Office".... Art
by tfarrell23

Comment:
Every time you pun, a devil gets its fangs.

And I suppose it's on topic, since it's a guy on a phone in what looks to be an office. Reasonable candid snapshot.

BUT WHERE ARE HIS EYES?

Holdin' It All Together
by karmat

Comment:
Is this the colour vs black and white war? I want to know how you got this effect. Kind of interesting 'growing from the corner' 3d thing with the clip going on there. Conceptually a little... I really need a word other than 'abstract' here for this sort of thing. "I don't get it." would be too strong, though.