Great concept, and a very unique shot! I like the fact that the hands lack detail-like Andrew, i am not sure about the rings (but i guess thats what makes it Duo!)
Awesome work!

Having seen them both, I think I like this one more just to throw in a vote. Great job. Very creepy feel to the shot.

this is so much better than the other, but i think the same than before, better without the jewels

Thanks everyone. Your critiques are much appreciated:)

Interesting effect but, I feel, it is overdone. The rings and fingernails do not bled at all with the unnatural looking fingers. MB if the color elements were oversaturated they would mesh better with the greyscale fingers.

Your comp on this is perfect. Have you tried it in b&w with perhaps a diffused glow added? Well seen:)

Very nice composition but I agree that there is something awkward in the colours. Probably the fact that the sand, the log and the mountain have very similar tones.
I also think adding some green to the colour balance would help, since it's quite reddish at the moment.
B&W could also do the trick.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to give that a try. Good thoughts. How would you add the diffused glow Jo?

to add the difuse glow, try to make a new layer of the hole image, give it a diffuse glow and after you do that, make a blending change and change the opacity until you get satisfied with the result.
This is my sugestion

Thanks all for the thoughts. I played around with it how you all mentioned (the BW and the difuse glow and different layering modes) and nothing really seemed that great to me. If anyone else wants to give it a shot feel free.

so good idea, is like the sun reflection i think, is it?

Very interesting picture here. Lots of motion. Looks like the picture was taken at a dance.

Thanks for the comments! This was actually taken at a fashion show.

This is a very interesting pic, something I did not see on the small version. I also like, how the DOF works on this. Great image - and where can I buy the skull thing?

love the motion and DOF in this shot-nice one!

great contrast between skirts, so good motion sensation and a DOF.

A unique vision. It has emotional appeal.

thanks Ron, that's just what i want to transmit.

i don't get detracted by the name but i miss the hole head of the man, in other way, i think that the bottle is the only thing that detracts me from the focus, it makes me look at the details insted of the hole image.
The colour is so great, that orange is incredible.

To me the bottle is very important, because it's a documentary photo. The monk has gone from house to house begging for his breakfast. Here you can see what he has to sustain him for the day. There is water and a glass, the pot with rice remaining in the bottom, and packets of food to eat with the rice. Someone else mentioned the angle; I angled slightly down in order to see into the pot. As for cutting off his head, that's something I often do. Are others bothered by that? Keep in mind, including the top of his head would mean seeing more to the left and right with more potential distractions. I come in close like this when I want a feeling of intimacy, like being there with the person.

The colours are very good but I think the intimacy of the picture could be improved by including all of the subjects head.

This reminds me that people who shoot in very close like this (right in front of him) often favor a 24mm lens. I was shooting at 40mm (24 x 1.6 crop factor). To have included his head I would have needed to move away. It would be better to get even closer with the 24 and do it. Anyone have a 5D to sell cheap?

I also tend to crop the tops of heads off for a feeling of closeness. If the angle was lower to include his hair (what there is of it anyway) you would lose the focus on the ingredients and the pot would look too important... detracting from other details like the strength in his arms and his sense of calm concentration. I like it!

Thanks!

I like that swirl effect on the water. Simetrical reflections sometimes are difficult to deal with.

That is a very fine capture. That little mountain up there is a little bit disturbing, but it doesn't matter very much.

i think that the picture is so simetric, i wolud like it more if i only could see the clods in the water and nothing mor over the top of the trees, but in other way, the colours and saturation are, (for me), perfect

Very nice capture. Would be even better with some center of interest in the foreground.

Beautiful shot!!, I love the web droplet shots, have plenty of my own but none this nice, I'd love to see the shot with the spide in focus also.

@reddave:
Thanks for the comment. The shot of the spider in focus is here:

www.vazaar.com/topic:shallow-dof/featured/response...

I think I prefer this one to the spider in focus shot. That was my first thought that the focus should have been on the spider but you don't get so much of the pearl effect of the water drops that really make this picture.

congratulations, it's the best pic of water effect i've seen in a long time, end the DOF effect is perfect.
congratulations again.

@chromadreams:
Thanks for your comment :-)

sooooo nice!
Thanks for sharing.

Great use of shallow DOF

Awesome shot...such detail yet still mysterious and a little creepy

another greatfull shot.

:-)

Good catch of that primal curve.

thanks a lot