Not keen on the painted effect the processing is giving to the shot but like the shot itself. Nice composition, lovely detail, nice uncluttered background. The crop to the front and rear of the bird feels too tight though.
Beautiful capture, too me I still think this fills the frame, because all it asked for was to have the subject mostly fill it. And you did that. Awesome picture love the colors on feet and eye. Well done.
I like this actiion shot, and how well it cropped and presented. Unfortunately, a very light background on an almost completely white subject didn't do well for this photo and that leads me to my second point - DNMC.
I think this would have been better if you had lightened it less. I think that's water in the background, and it would have been really nice to include it's natural color.
Very nice picture, but I do not think it meets the challenge. I guess you are going to get a lot of that. 8 in a proper challenge, 4 in the context of this challenge. Lionel