istock photo critique please

[kalmiya]

Yep, better.  Up the saturation too.

What do you think?
http://kalmiya.dyndns.org/images/2012/stock/20120722_4216c.jpg [nofollow]

yep! you may go to curves and lower the 255, will take away some of the whites you have on the central cloud

Decreased the "hilights" to -9 and put the hilight curve a bit down also (from being a straight line), makes the clouds more "puffy" and which takes away a bit of the shine on the leaves also.

http://kalmiya.dyndns.org/images/2012/stock/20120722_4216d.jpg [nofollow]

lightroom settings
http://kalmiya.dyndns.org/images/2012/stock/20120722_4216d_basic.png [nofollow]
http://kalmiya.dyndns.org/images/2012/stock/20120722_4216d_curve.png [nofollow]

Not sure how to achieve the "deeper green" like ruxpriencdiam did yet...

Yep, better.  Up the saturation too.

What do you think?
http://kalmiya.dyndns.org/images/2012/stock/20120722_4216c.jpg [nofollow]

Watch out with overprocessing mate, IS likes them natural looking. Put more focus on exposure, noise and sharpness, keep the colors neutral.
Good luck!

True - I usually stay away from the saturation slider because I have a tendency to make the colors "scream"...
But let's see where this leads.

[JPSDK]

Let the others talk about the technicalities and their opinions.
I notice that you have thought about concepts, and thats the right way to go. You are already far above the snapshooters of pets and fences.

Your humans have difficulties with keywords.
meaning... what would you search for to get them? What concept are they?