Some of my favorites

[conniecat]

Have at it, I can take it!
:feedback:

[martolod]

elk chillin' on the side of the road is my favorite.
it's actually a very nice set covering a huge range of techniques and lighting situations.
i reckon you pulled them of reasonably well.
perhaps a little more post production in some of the darker ones, nothing major just a few subtle adjustments(OTOH it could be just my monitor and/or defective vision.....)

[conniecat]

Thanks!  I called the elk one "Waiting for a bus"

[martolod]

just had another look and i think the rose(last one) is aesthetically the best.
 you absolutely nailed that one.

[Madrigal]

Nice work, Connie. I'm no good at critiquing, but I do like #4 best- purple clouds/sun through branches; and #1- frozen chickadee.
The elk are most amusing

[conniecat]

Thank you both.  Madrigal, I am so glad someone else finally liked my purple sky and bare branches.  Most people I have shown that to just said, "Huh?'  The rose is out of my garden. Thanks again.

[P C Headland]

OK, I'll have a go at critiquing then.

#1 - I like the basic image, it a real winter shot.  It is hard to judge with small images, but it looks like it could do with a bit more processing to give the bird a little more prominence.  Try a local contrast enhancement on the whole image (unsharp mask, amount 20%, radius 50, threshold 0).  Then try and make a selection of the bird, and slightly lighten him with respect to the background.  You could also try different crops - maybe a portrait crop, or crop some of the extremities.

#2  I would like to see the centre of focus on the centre of the flower, or on what I think is an insect.  The foreground petals are a little distracting, so maybe come around a little more to the left, and look straighter on to the flower.  I'd add a touch more contrast (the local contrast enhancement (LCE) as per above would help).

#3 Some funky artifacts, and I suspect the shot is too underexposed.  A tough shot to pull off, as you really need a lot of depth of field.

#4 I love this image, the composition and muted tones work really well.

#5  Nice fun image.  Could do with some LCE and/or sharpening.  If you are not able to get a bit more detail in the bright area of sky, I'd look at cropping some of the really bright area out.  Well spotted!

#6 A beautiful rose.  Good focus and DoF that covers the whole rose.  I'd see if you could adjust the brightness/levels down a bit to avoid blowing out the bright areas of the rose.  Maybe then try selecting everything but the rose, and darken the barkground to make the rose stand out even more.

Number 4 is my favourite, and would make a nice wall-hanger!  1,5 and 6 might be good candidates for the retouch forum.

[conniecat]

Paul, thank you for your suggestions.  I am still learning then post production, and your suggestions are helpful, now I just need to learn how to do the selective lightening, contrast.  My son did graphic design for a while and is slowly teaching me how to use the software.

[martolod]

P slowly teaching me how to use the software.

with emphasis on the SLOWLY.............:p