===== From chris@bluelectrode.com: Hmmm...not quite sunny. It needs a more brillant light source placed at a higher angle. Everything else looks ok. Good job. ===== From clintona@ibm.net: The sprinkler is excellent, and so are the chairs. I think that some of the willows seem a little too vertical and straight. ===== From bill@apocalypse.org: I like that you did willows, but they need something to give them more realism. I think the problem lies in the solid curtain of branches. If there were some breaks in the curtain, it might look better. ===== From YaelParis@operamail.com: Unfortunately your picture lacks of relief. You should improve the lighting so that the garden will have a true depth. There's something strange with the jet of water, there's no shadows! Very nice use of macros anyway. ===== From whhale@nvl.army.mil: Thanks for an excellent trace and the lesson in texturizing hedges. ===== From tom@tomandlu.force9.co.uk: I like the ordinariness of this one. The sunset (?) doesn't quite work. ===== From ameede@madmac.com: I like how you see your position of living in a flat then providing to the viewer what your garden would look like it you had the space. Your image as it stands visually appears to flat, there is little to show depth, the shadows are from my side of the screen too light. the hedge was an excellent way of helping your viewer to read into the background. Your sky from the ground up starts with a dark saturated hue then moves up to a kind of neutral blue color. I think that it should be reversed in position. I am glad to see that you added all the tops of your trees, I can not tell how many times I have seen artist clip off the top of tree for whatever reason, I do not know. ameede@madmac.com ===== From Alain.Culos@bigfoot.com: All plants are gorgeous, except for the weeping willows dead straight branches ... They usually sway a bit and they are not that perfectly pulled down this makes them look unnatural. The lighting conditions damage the image a lot in my view. I would have much preferred a more balanced spectrum. This is too red and too dark - I know that's the effect you wanted to get, but that takes away from the quality of it. I like the idea of the Chateau Margaux and your dream for a better place. The sky does not look terribly convincing. A good entry. ===== From jaime@ctav.es: Very nice, Marianne. It shows an uggly contrast on my monitor, but after some gamma tweaking it looked very nice, with depth. Perhaps light ambient is too high, but sun placement is really good. Nice details make it peaceful, as a garden must be. Good work! ===== From albiaprime@aol.com: Technical - Very good works on all objects Artistic - the image seems a bit 'washed out', I would have expected the trees to be a bit more vibrant Theme - mostly a yard with a bit of a garden ===== From mar@physics.usyd.edu.au: This is a nice image - very much a sunset feel. The trees are wonderful, although the willow strands look too straight as they droop. The sprinkler, the grass, the flowers, the chairs... all the elements are excellent. This is a little let down by the lighting however - the shadow of the arch on the wall behind doesn't match the shadow of the chairs, revealing multiple light sources - and the bland sky. Some glowing red/orange sunset clouds and care with the shadows would turn this from a good image into a great one. ===== From file: Watering the dandilions. Too funny. Needs something for a sky and maybe down on the wall ambiance setting.