Good lord! Decca, Zardoz - you guys have indeed come far since the early days. It really is ace to see both your talents grow. I like your simple portraits Decca, full of life and light. Zardoz, your macro stuff continues to amaze. I especially like the bokeh behind the butterfly (moth?), it really compliments the downturned branch and the framing of the insect allowing it to stand out instead of being lost against dull colours. The hoverfly pics are of course lovely. Nice DOF on the Airfix, though what really wins me over are the colours of the glue and cement bottles.
Fun street punk shot there, Decca. Like the subject's reaction. I do feel that the colour, though sparkly and vivid, might be detracting from the subject in this case. The eye gets drawn up to the red and the just visible lettering a bit too much. So either a tighter crop or a B&W or both might let it speak a bit more. The cat shots are lovely too, very funny expressions. Kudos on Nebojsa Mladjenovic's praise. He's very good. (Easy on the HDR though, eh Nebojsa?) I love his snail shell, I've been trying to emulate that one for a while. And failing. Nothing got me more excited when
Maciej Dakowicz complimented a pic of mine. And then I fleeced him of wine and books in a photography raffle down in Cardiff Bay. Ha! Keep on accelerating like this anyway Decca and more comments should flow. PRECIOUS COMMENTS.
You might want to be carefuly about the number of cat shots on your account though. They've all got something uniquely amusing about them with the expressions and the moments you've captured but you may lose the best ones in a general mass of good-but-not-immediately-discernably-different stuff. But then again, these are great cat shots. The solution? Well, you might want to make a 'contact sheet' of your cat shots. 3x3 square format cat portrait shots on white spaced so that there's white divides between each. That way you can fit in sequences of expression, or a different expression from the cat in each one highlighting its differing reactions - bored, cross, hunting, sleepy, etc.
Anyway, now for the star of the show - MarkG!
I think those two garden shots are frankly amazing. The gentle light just illuminating the flowerhead is delicately beautiful. Anything that makes you really look at a flower and appreciate its form is a good photo, in my opinion. The gargoyle amongst the grass stalks is excellent. I really like the dour light fitting in with a sort of fairy-tale Rackham mood. It looks a particularily sad gargoyle, hiding away and wishing to be alone. The framing of the grass stalks is perfect and the depth of focus is excellent - not too sharp, not too blurred. You really feel as if you're down there in the undergrowth. It reminds me a little of a Hayao Miyazaki shot, sort of Spirited Away like.
Some cool subjects Malc, I especially like the Monkey. I agree the breezeblock jetty is awesome. A closer up B&W high contrast shot emphasising its size might be cool. Or you could wait patiently for mist and go for low contrast ethereal.