Great compilation, i think the persons needs a little more shading tho. The giraffes have wrong lights (comes from left on their body while the light comes from right on the background).

The hay bales are too blurry in comparison to the animals on top of them.

Nice work on the walkway.

Lion says ; "Those pumpking head seems to be funny"
Good thinking man

The shadows are different for the people and the elephant, and the people are lit from the side, not the top.

You should darken the elephant's legs on the right since the light comes from the opposite side.

In the original photo the light is coming from top-right. Look careful at the hill and at the signpost. You should correct the shadows first and then darken the left-bottom side.

Can you make the frame standing in the sand so that we can't see it's lower part? I think it would look better and save you some blending issues.
If you're not sure how it should look, take a small frame, in real life ( you can make one from paper, cardboard, and put it in a bowl of sugar, flour or something similar to sand. There you have your reference!

I would suggest you keep this entry on daylight and make some shadows to the animals, frame & tree. GL.

Thanks Greymval for the suggestion....I was on the fence about leaving the frame out of the sand and was hoping to get some feedback about it..I like it better in the sand now that I have redone it....I'm pretty pleased with the outcome but welcome any and all suggestions for improvements

I'm not eager to make future comments on this, cause i don't wanna get you discouraged , so if you like it this way, i won't judge Instead, this is...
What I would do:
1. Make desert opaque, so that the bottom of the frame cannot be seen any more - use plants to cover up where it goes in the ground if blending is not convincing.
2.Make the foreground Daylight and keep the sky in the frame, night time. Instead of that unconvincing green stuff I would search on sxc.hu "desert grass" I"ll find at least 3 usable sources that I can also use for step 1.
3. Make shadows for elephant,maybe tree as well- use displace map if necessary . Fix the cutout of that frame we can stil see white spots in Hi-res.
4.Wait for other comments if I don't agree with Greymval, lol.
Good luck.

Greymval it's never discouraging to get helpful input!! That's why I'm here...to learn and get suggestions so please don't stop your comments....I was already working on something close to what you were suggesting...I have a feeling this is gonna be a work in progress but that's how I get better so thanks for all your suggestions

Great attitude ... and you have done well with the picture. I have never been able to do these out-of-frame images ... the perspective is always so hard to get right.

very nice composition and good blending of different sources...i like the overall mood and giraffe is hard to find...well done

great job

Well decorated Room.........Good job Author.....G/L.

nice one

Very nice work

very nice, well you decorate my house for me :P good luck..

great job!

where's the Rain Stick?.. hehehe.. very leopardy good job

i guss its realy a gud work done... lots of things looks original...g8 work gud luck

Only thing is missing is an elephant gun Excellent work, good luck..

That's great theme Good work author.

Great job with a very instructive SBS. In hi-res, the rug looks like it's floating above, rather than resting on, the floor. The corner on the right especially conveys that impression.

reminds me of safari time in africa

wonderful image

Top entry. Quality work done here.....GL author

This is great!!! Well Done!

awesome work.....better than any 3d work......GL

very nice

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments! You're right DanLundberg, it did look like it was floating. But I fixed it now

WOW! Amazing job! GL!!

This is awesome transformation (I just came from the movie theatre watching transformers 2 so I know what I'm taking about) high marks from me!

excellent job

Congratulations, your entry is the best. See you on next contests.

Congratulations for 1st

Congrats! Very well done.

Congrats, lovely work

congrats!

congrats

Congrats!

congrats!!

congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations.

Congrats for 1st

Congratulations!

Congrats!

wow, that's a lot of congrats! hehe Thanks everyone!