Thanks for the initial replies and encouragement! In the future I probably won't be updating nearly as often but I do have a large number of stockpiled images to go through. As
Sephi suggested, I'll include the technical details where they've available.
Lake of Multiple Personalities
While trying to capture the sunset as depicted in
Sky Painting I noticed that the water was becoming all sorts of brilliant colors as well. The difficulty in this one was capturing the colors of the water without increasing the exposure so much that the sky became completely white or faded out. While this would have likely been a great candidate for an HDR image I was working without a tripod, and I'm not sure how effective HDR would be given that the waves in the water would have shifted between the shots.
The Nexus
Due to poor lighting conditions the exposure time had to be increased, resulting in a slight blur. I'd initially wanted to capture the symmetry of the place, combined with the activity of the people. In hindsight, the image isn't perfectly focused, a bit of the ledge below me found its way into the picture, and I should have kept the shutter open longer in order for the blur of the people to be made more apparent (and seem more intentional) - blurred people would give the feel of motion, and would have contrasted much more nicely against the static background. As I was propping the camera up against a handrail and working without a tripod I wanted to keep the shutter speed as low as possible, though. Something to keep in mind for next time...
The Royal Rest
The goal here was to capture a nice contrast of colors - the golden fur of my dog, Mercury, against the deep red of his favorite rug. The color and texture of the rug further contrasted with the tile floor. The overall positioning has a nice angle to it. It's worth noting that I was using my "long range" lens for this one - a strange choice of lens for indoor and close-range shots, but it helped in presenting the feel of closeness and some of the detail.
If you're a fan of corgies, you're in luck - I have a ton more pictures featuring Mercury, and some of them will invariably end up here. I'm sure he'll appreciate hearing of how many fans he's picking up on the internet
Howling Sky
This was taken on a boat, which presented the problem of motion. Low lighting requires slower shutter speeds, which makes you vulnerable to blurring. Someone will have to tell me how to overcome boat photography some day... luckily, the goal here wasn't some sharp image, but to capture the clouds and colors of the sky. Capture successful. Keeping the horizon level and dealing with the brightness of the sun on the left against the incoming darkness on the right was also somewhat difficult to do, but I think it came out nicely. I have some more from this series that I may post later.
Ammonite
I didn't think much of this picture when I took it, but the background and lighting almost seem as if it were on display for a photoshoot. You wouldn't know that this thing was behind glass in a rather light room, would you? (Taken at the Museum of Natural History, New York.)
Dreaming Demon
Another example of what happens when you use unconventional levels of zoom at close range. Here I managed to sneak up on my sister's rather unfriendly cat and got a few shots in - this is the last and best. The blurring worked purrrfectly (sorry, I won't do that again) - as with the seagull, the background is blurred. In this case the extreme foreground is also blurred. The cat's face is truly the point of focus, as even its rear becomes a bit blurred. I chose this angle for artistic purposes and didn't pay much attention to exposure issues with the sunlight.
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I'd just like to restate again that thoughts on angles, concepts, and overall presentation are very much appreciated. Even if you're unsure of how to achieve a certain effect with the camera, or whether the camera can even do it, let me know what you're thinking! It gives me ideas of new things to try out. I hope you enjoyed this batch - thanks for viewing.