Learning to take better photos (3)

Last year I had my own tiny success experiences when I admitted some photos to rgbstoc.com and they actually accepted some. (I wrote about it here and here.) After a long pause, I made another humble attempt today. So, these are the rejects.

This had too much pixelation/ noise.

So did this ...

... and others of its kin. (Most also had the comment about poor lighting.) 

None from today's batch made it for the publishing. I know I will be giving more shots to capturing the bark beetle patterns, so "watch that lighting!" will go straight to the mental notes and helpful hints depository.