i would rather see a shot like this with borders It seems wrong to crop something that is ment to be vertical. I think you will find bars on the side will hurt you in the voting booth, but when comments come it seems they are often positive anyways. I would keep them coming if i were you.

And of course i should say something about this shot too shouldn't i. The dock works really well to lead the eye out into the lake. It is exposed very well, and i don't see alot i would want to change. Good job.

Great job Michael, looks like a good spot to cast a line.

i like this
lets get this out of the way - the actual photo could not be better! :D

and i too try to preserve the original format of my cam by letterboxing (you may have noticed how many of my pictures have black bands top and bottom) i just loath to crop something if i dont have to

actually i also think that often the stark black as i often have as my letter boxing colours add to the contrast and stand-out-ed-ness of my images, thats not a word .. i just made it up :p

in this case i might have experimented with moving the image left or right off center
it might have turned out that middle is best anyway