And by that I mean that I fed the squirrel some nuts despite the "Please do not feed the squirrels" sign. I hope that's not grounds for a DQ. This textures challenge coincided well with the acquisition of my new macro lens (although the Macro challenge was a tad early) - so I had to submit something. I expect this shot to outscore most, if not all, of my past entries - but I'll have to wait and see.
Shot in RAW. Slight contrast boost, slight color saturation, heavy sharpening then converted to JPEG by CaptureOne Pro (demo). Channel Mixer (Monochrome), Levels, Grayscale, Duotone(Quadtone), Levels, USM, USM, RGB, Image Size, USM, Convert to sRGB, Save for web.
Post Challenge: WOW! Thanks to all of you for voting and giving me the yellow ribbon in this GIGANTIC challenge. I was only hoping to possibly outscore my previous personal best, but this certainly did it by far! Also, I want to say thanks for all of the wonderful comments - I truly appreciate them. :D
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 614 Avg (all users): 6.7257 Avg (commenters): 8.7000 Avg (participants): 6.6931 Avg (non-participants): 6.7879 Views since voting: 9435 Views during voting: 412 Votes: 288 Comments: 57 Favorites: 27 (view)
congrats Brian on your first ribbon, you've had it coming for quite a while now. You know the ol saw about comp, it it ain't good you ain't close enough, and you've proven that closer is better :)
Good luck in future challenges.
I wanna know who gave this shot a score of "1" of 10 ... that is hillarious! This is a great image but I can't believe you cheated :) ... Regrettably, I didn't have time to score all the images and I missed this one. I definitely would have given it at least a 2!!! Oh my ---! Seriously: 9
A quick story: I was golfing once and a guy in my foursome saw a squirrel and started chasing it swinging his golf club and yelling "tree rat!" .. By the time this man was half in the woods, the squirrel had outwitted him and was standing back on the tee-box. He seriously had a problem with squirrels for some reason (I am an all-animal loving almost-vegetarian for the record) ... but it was funny to see that weirdo get out-smarted by a squirrel! Anyway - thanks for the great image.
Congrats on the ribbon! I'm a squirrel nut (no pun intended - well, maybe a little). (o: I'd added this to my favorites the second I saw it - terrific shot!
oooo... NOT FAIR!!!... you're messing with voters emotions.
I'd give it a 10 if she was a bit lower in the frame, I'd like to see just a little more of the top of the head.
top notch contrast and toning. it's funny how you know you've got a great shot without anyone telling you. just in case you don't think so, i'll tell you. great shot.
Western Gray Squirrel
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