Advice on upcoming photo contest

I'm trying to come up with 2-5 photos to put in an open topic contest... Not really too happy with these but if you all would like to have a look and see if any of these really stick out, I'd appreciate it.

http://www.flickr.com …9/sets/72157627​828783838/

If you're not happy with them, I would think that you'd analyze what you don't like and go back and do them again with a solution in mind. I wouldn't enter them in a photo contest unless I was proud of them and thought that they were pretty near perfect.

The mountain waterfall setting caught my eye. However, there's something about it that doesn't ring true. Did you apply an HDR technique to it? There don't seem to be any shadows where one would expect shadows. Also, when I zoomed in, it looks like your focus was at infinity. So the nearer stuff was soft.

You'd probably get more responses if you post the images in the thread...links are a PITA.

i like the bridge although the horizon line looks like its tilting to the right and also again as Joe said have you applied a HDR effect? i think the clouds look fantastic but the bridge rails and wood dont look all that natural.

for some reason i also like the one with a beam obstructing the view i dont know why perhaps because its different, either way i think its quite effective.
a contest winner? i have no idea though never entered one myself :P (yet)

the water coming out of the cliff looks fake to me. and the sky isnt too good iwould of taken a few exposures with different area's metered ie. light part of the sky, midtone, dark tone. and then the rocks.

this one i like alot its just a shame when your eye follows the river upwards that the clouds/sky is a small letdown (would be nice to be more dramatic, but not over dramatic)
http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157627828783838/

the hut one i like alot though and cant fault it with my current knowledge.

about the contest though...do you know the judges? names etc? search them find out what type of work(s) they like and cater towards the judges.

A few too many to comment on in one shot but I like 6 as an abstract if you lose the spot in the lower right corner. Others would be better but seem a little overdone with the HDR to me.

I would encourage you to be careful in your use of HDR. I think that you have some nice compositions but may have overcooked the HDR to the point that you lose a more critical audience. A few years ago when HDR was new to everyone, overdone HDR was pretty exciting, but now it is becoming cliche. To people that don't see HDR often, it still looks cool, but do you think your judges will be such people?

This isn't to say that you shouldn't use HDR, actually, I love HDR for bringing out the dynamic range some shots need. I would, however, encourage trying for a more "real" and "believable" result with it.

Having said that, I quite like #3 if it were toned down, I know that I'd be proud of that capture. Contest winner, I don't know, but I like landscapes and I'd like to have taken that one.

The image titled... GRSM -=HDR=- BW... is nice, and even though it is excessive in HDR, I still like it.

And a personal fav (which I don't think anyone mentioned) is #15. I can't explain why, mystery, suspense, story, something... Again, not sure how the "judges" would view it, but I like it.