Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

THE BEAUTIFUL CATEGORY WINNERS ARE IN!

(I am aware that I could've posted this on the Winners thread, but I wasn't sure people were checking that thread, so to be safe, I made a new thread. 

Okay, first off, a big round of applause for everyone who participated: Booksy Owly, Ashlee G, Joan B of Arc, Daisy (who went under Swummer and Hidden), Butterfly, and Mei-xue.

Trust me, I am not exaggerating or trying to be nice when I say this: these entries were AMAZING. I wish I could have more than three places. It was a reall, really, really tough decision. I really enjoyed looking at all the photos. It was very hard to narrow down, but after thirty minutes, two Word documents, two glasses of water, and one slice of watermelon, I managed to narrow it down to these three. Drumroll, please!

*drumroll*

FIRST PLACE: Ashlee G's Photo #2!

I have a lot to say about this superb photo. It does a wonderful job at capturing so much in one shot. I love the the trees in the background and the leaves up close. The shadows at the edge of the picture, the soil. You can tell so much about this forest just with this one photo. It truly captured the beauty of the forest. I don't usually imagine sensory details when I see a photo but with this one, I definitely do. The soil looks soft and moist, like it just rained. I can imagine walking through it. I can imagine inhaling the somewhat humid but fresh air. I can imagine bird sounds in the distance. And the leaves are such a vibrant green. I like the way the path leads into the woods. This photo makes me want to teleport onto that path, and follow it into the woods.

SECOND PLACE: Joan B. of Arc's Photo #1!

The pastel colors of the sunset are very beautiful. The colors shift between shades of pink and peach and orange, and the purplish blue clouds floating in front of it very well with it. The sky sets the scene for a very dreamy-looking picture. It looks like something out of a fantasy story. The houses on the shore below make a nice contrast. Then the rocks head into the bluish gray sea. Also, the focus on the right makes for a nice composition.

THIRD PLACE: Mei-xue's Photo #3!

A lovely scene. Very bright and serene.(I am not biased towards forest photos by the way; this really does deserve a place. And it is different from Ashlee's.) The pine tree close to the viewer gives it it a nice C composition. I love how this one photo captures a lot of different elevations. You can see how the land goes up and down, higer and higher, till it reaches the mountains.The mountains are very pretty, and are shadowed in cool ways. The sky is a beautiful shade of blue. The forest almost seems to reach out to the mountains, running across the landscape with shades of dark green and some brown. 

Like I said, there were so many really great entries. Congratioulations to Ashlee, Joan and Mei, and to all participants! Thank you so much for sharing your work with me.