Spring Sunset

Unless my eyes are going (quite possible) me thinks your large version = your small version
I think this scene had a ton of potential, but the technical problems here take away some of the impact for me rather than helping out. Im surprised you got decent focus at f/4, but at any rate i think this might have been stronger if you had used more of the tree to block the sun (looks like that trunk is plenty wide enough for the job), and in general a smaller aperature (f/16 or smaller) would probably have given you some nice sun effects rather than a big white spot. It is really really tough shooting scenes like this, cause you almost always end up with unintended flare (like that purple spot left of the tree) unless you are really careful. Another option is to have a picnic under that nice tree until the sun is almost down, or the clouds blocking it more.

Stan, S2IS has a smaller sensor and is not a SLR. So F/4 is perhaps something like F/11 or F/16 in the SLR World.

I quite like this photo, Stephanie. Would have been nice if the sun burst did not coincide with the tree and make a portion of it disappear completely.

I like what you were going for here (the sunburst behind the tree) but I think it's just a little overwhelming - IMO it would work better if you had used more of the trunk to block the sun. Also, I think a smaller aperture would help keep everything in focus.

This is nice, but there's a lot of potential with a few small changes!

Ah--that explains it! Thanks for pointing that out, Ram.