Delicate & Lovely
by Denise

Comment:
You're right; it is quite lovely. Thank you. 7.

Boy in Winter
by CaptainJester

Comment:
Interesting, appealing portrait that rewards a longer look. It has substance. Style of librodo? Probably not. Thank you. 7.

Above rooftops balloons fly
by jmritz

Comment:
9. Sorry; voted but never managed any comments. This was my top pick. Comment would have been effusive.

Mush!
by DJWoodward

Comment:
Del, you were in my 7s. You know what that means! It's probably also the first time I have ever scored a blue above 5. Now you have to create a new voter profile category just for me.

- and winter sunlight -
by raish

Comment:
This is my top choice for the Free Study, which surprises me in that it's not at all my usual tipple.

It's gloriously understated in so many ways. It is very difficult to take a memorable photograph that gets its power from no particular thing in terms of a subject, concept or photographic technique, and yet you have done it. It's the difference between great classical music and Guns 'n Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" ΓΆ€“ the former is about the complex whole being eased incrementally into your soul, while the latter is about a single idea being pounded repeatedly into your head. Your beautiful photograph takes the Mozart option.

It's just occurred to me that I haven't said exactly why I like your photograph so much, only that I do like it. Here's why:

Susan Sontag observed that in the early days of photography, photographs were expected to be idealized images, and that that remains the aim of most amateur photographers, for whom a beautiful photograph is a photograph of something beautiful, like a woman or a sunset.

She wrote that over 30 years ago, before the digital age. It remains true, but now I'd add to it the further amateur aim of producing startling, technology-enabled, 'wow'-type images. Incredible macros, astonishing stop-action, gravity-defying digital gimmickry, often exploiting the heretofore undreamed of capacity to produce and process hundreds of 'takes' looking for that one crowd pleasing fluke shot where the water drop takes the form of Elvis's profile, or whatever. These images have in common a reliance on a single, simple idea expressed in unequivocal terms. Everything that's not the idea is a 'distraction', even unto having no background at all, no secondary elements, no compositional originality, and certainly no requirement for more that a moment's thought by the viewer. Images designed to fit within the attention span and aesthetic horizons of a digital-age audience.

Which brings me to your photograph. It's probably not a great photograph (I'm not sure that I'd know that) but it is very, very good, and certainly transcends the limited and banal amateur ideals by a nice margin.

So what I am saying is that I appreciate your photograph not only for what it is, but for what it is not. It's a very fine example of both. Thank you.

Whispers, Undisclosed Information.
by jjbeguin

Comment:
Lovely if slimy conspiracy. Top two for me. Thank you.

Ice Age
by dragonlady

Comment:
First time I ever saw a fisheye photograph that I liked. Wonderful polar triumph. Top three for me. Thank you.

Brief Moment
by insteps

Comment:
Wow! That has some penetration Henry. Perfect level of rendering. Any more fidelity and it'd be diminished by being too equivocal. Any less would blunt its spear point.

Living it up
by jmritz

Comment:
Watch it JM ... it appears you're beginning to sneak into the side door of comprehensibility.

southern california #5
by bspurgeon

Comment:
I hear the Eagles. Somewhere.