Your dof is a bit too shallow -- I would have liked to see the tips of all the pencils in focus. Sharpenning them would have made the image a bit stronger, I think.
Ack, that sounded catty didn't it? Ok, what I meant was that you've taken a shot (and a very good one I should add too) of a pencil being represented to us as a pencil. You've done exceptionally well with lighting, dof and composition, but unfortunately failed on the challenge brief which was to communicate as something other than a pencil. Apologies for my initial harshness :)
This is probably my least favorite. Sorry. You are supposed to use pencils as something other than pencils. If you were implying something with the title, it was unsuccessful. Better luck next time. Looks like you probably have a pretty sweet lens, though.
Yes good idea, a good lil representation of out of the crowd but the execution is not top notch... I would've tried to make this a whole lot more tidier, like make sure the pencils at the back were in a straight line to emphacise more that the pencil in the midle is out of the crowd, that it stands out more...