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From skipt1@aol.com:
Good use of focal blur and I like the ground.  The colors are off, however. 
There is too much purple in the sky.  My only other critique is the bottle.  It
looks metallic like something trying to get your attention in the liquor aisle,
not a dark old glass that would probably fit this scene better.
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From tek@evilsuperbrain.com:
very nice ground texture. It's a simple scene but very poignant. My only real
criticism is that the bottle is so reflective it's hard to see that there's a
message inside.


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From noe.falzon@tiscali.fr:
This is beautiful ! And your dried lake looks good.
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From rgow@lanset.com:
Simple but effective image. Good interpretation of topic. The paper in the
bottle doesn't stand out very well, I wasn't sure what it was until I read your
description.

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From i-mcnamara@cornellcollege.edu:
A lot of thought went into this one,  and you did a good job of explaining that
in your description.  Great ground height field, nice modeling, well lit, and
the fog is a nice touch, though it could be a little more pronounced in the
foreground before focal blur merges in into the horizon.  Good work.
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From jacoons@ameritech.net:
Good effort, cracked sand, focal blur. The bottle, since it seems to have most
of the focus, should be more detailed, transparent, containing a little water,
a "message" - or something else, which I can't quite place. The horizon focal
blur is a bit too grainy. Your general theme and explanation are good - keeps
the head thinking. 

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From ericf@foothill.net:
I like the concept you were aiming at, I think it just missed a bit.  I think
there needs to be more context of some sort, though I couldn't say what that
might be.  The elements that are there are good, just seems like something is
missing.

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From boork@zipcon.net:
I really love this image, especially the ground.  Reminded me instantly of dried
playa lake beds.
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From dylan_beadle@yahoo.com:
Difficult to determine message in bottle.
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From raytracing@grayproductions.net:
Thank you for providing such a thought prevoking image.
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From darwallace@earthlink.net:
Objects that have been left in the elements for a while tend to get scratched
and dirty.  The bottle needs a few things.   Start with a dents normal scaled
along the axis of the bottle for scratches.  Then add some dirt to the bottle
surface (brown and tan granite with a lot of transparency will work well).  You
can either use a layered texture or a texture map for this.  You might want to
create the bottle in two sections (outer shell and inner cutout) and apply the
normal and dirt to the shell only.

The heightfield cracks are very good.  I have graduated to using a function with
two or more function { pattern { ... } } components combined with another
function to place a BW pigment on a plane to create heightfield images.


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From file:
Well
Notable for textures, modelling