Detective, 'Pray Continue!'
by espy2

Comment:
Very creative idea and I like the site humor, but I wonder if you'll run afoul of the rule on artwork, "Even your own..."

GTG May 2006 - Cloud Gate
by MayaM

Comment:
Nicely done. The textures on the grass are my favorite. Looks like you used some secret formula to convert to BW.

2
by DigiFotoBuddy

Comment:
Very nice Shailesh!

GTG May 2006 - Everybody but Maya...
by MayaM

Comment:
That's a great pic! I wish I had been there early enough to do the morning with you guys. You should name them left to right....

edited.jpg
by notonline

Comment:
An excellent shot. Would like to see the "before" to see how much you had to correct the perspective.

Over the Fence
by scalvert

Comment:
Shannon, he's getting almost as recognizable as one of Librodo's girls! Another technically excellent and imaginative image. Well done!

Grey Heron with Frog
by riot

Comment:
Unbelievable. Outstanding. Kudos and salutations to you. What a wonderful capture. I'm green with envy. I can't wait to read the details of this shot. How close? What lens. Gosh, this is excellent!

Onwards and upwards
by joynim

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
The first thing that strikes me about this image, and it's like an iron upside the head, are the horribly blown out sky highlights. Everything else looks a little underexposed (maybe auto mode?) but the powerfully overexposed whites are just too in-your-face.

COMPOSITION
It's really an odd looking composition, and doesn't come off that well, IMO. Meets the challenge, yes. Footware is prominently featured, but the angle of the tree is very odd, the left shoe is cut off (bad when that shoe is the subject) and we're seeing only the bottoms of the feet. I believe that this idea has some potential. A person - especially a kid - climbing a tree is a very interesting subject, but without more of that person to work with in the image, it's hard to hold the interest. I like the way the legs are evidently wrapped around that branch, because it suggests some tension and drama. However, it's difficult to tell if that's what's going on or not. Most of the frame is dominated by the inert mass of the trunk, which is doing nothing for your composition. Take this composition, and move to the right about two feet so the feet (and maybe a little more of the body) are more centered in the frame, and make it a little easier for us to relate to the climber. Just an idea. Many other possibilities occur to me as I look at this photo.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
It's very minimal impact results from the technical shortcomings and questionable composition. More attention to those two areas probably would have saved this from being in the sleeper section of a challenge.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your comments captured some of the things I was getting at, and your final score of 4.47 is about what I would have predicted. I should also add that I found your lack of a photographer's comment or any technical details about your photo frustrating (shutter, aperture, etc.). When you ask for a critique, you should consider sharing some of your own thoughts about your work. What were you aiming for? What did you like or not like about the photo? What were your frustrations with your composition, etc.? It can help your CC'er understand better your intent and purpose in make the image you did.

Amazing!
by eschelar

Comment:
Oh, I'm completely in agreement with you about the power of books, and the ability of literature to amaze and and delight. But for a photo in a popular challenge, I think the source of the amazement needs to be more apparent. For the DPC crowd in particular, you need to hit people over the head to make your point. Knowing your view of literature and your profession, your pic communicates that idea beautifully. Just seeing the photo and the title without that context, I'd have liked to see it score higher, but can understand (at least partially) why it didnt.

Originally posted by eschelar: :)Strangeghost: There is a noble hope in this picture that others will have found books as fascinating as I have in my life. I grew up as an avid "DEVOURER" of books and many are the times when I felt like this inside over something I have read. I would hope that there are other literary sources that can make a person, be it a young male or otherwise that can extract a response that are somewhat more deep than a girlie mag or a peice of jewelry. As someone else who works in the education field (I'm an English teacher), one would hope that we might share the same hope that books themselves are worthy of such a reaction, and the book in question is different for each individual... Nonetheless, I'm grateful for your comment. Definitely something to learn from it... And that's what I'm lookin' for. :)

Do It Yourself, Decorating with feathers!
by tolovemoon

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
Nice focus and oof background (but not too oof). Nice control of the tones. The blacks are really black without a loss of detail. The white of the guitar face is awfully big and bland, but there probably wasn't much detail there to begin with, so OK. Tack-sharp with detail on the shoe stitching. My only real technical beef is with the lighting, which looks pretty flat and may have been on-board flash? It's hard to suggest how this might have been better lit though. See comments in composition.

COMPOSITION
I fully realize what a tough challenge this was, with a limited selection of objects to choose from, but this composition leaves me feeling "so what?" A shoe with a feather stuck in it, another feather on a scrunchie (?) and a feather stuck in a guitar. There's no logic or purpose or excitement presented, it's all just kind of there. The unusual angle was an attempt to add some imbalance or drama, but didn't really do it for me. I like the addition of the guitar, but again, it's hard to see the logic that holds them together, other than your title, which leads me to the issue of humor. Is it funny? Well, it's got potential, but you didn't get a belly laugh out of me. My guess is that you were struggling for a response to the challenge and threw this together as a last minute entry. There were probably creative solutions that you could have found to the humor issue, but I can hardly speak to these since I (ahem) didn't enter this challenge. You know what they say about people who live in glass houses not throwing stones...

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Nope. I don't think so. Technically excellent but emotionally ho-hum.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your photographer's comment answers my "why" question. I was sorta correct, I guess, about your rush to get an entry together. Your final score of 5.0 is probably a bit of a disappointment, but not bad given the relative indifference of the voters (only 4 comments). Like I said at the outset, this was a tough challenge to enter, and I personally didn't even take a shot, so bravo to you for jumping in.