Person on a Bike
by slipintoshadows

Comment:
Of all eleven hundred images, this one is my favorite. It's because you have used the reflection to establish your photograph not as an image of something (a two-dimensional representation of a moment), but instead as a portal, a kind of passport, to the actual, three-dimension experience of the thing itself. A palpable recollection of the real thing.

Let me explain further. René Magritte's most well-known painting is the one of a pipe, with the legend "This is not a pipe" ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe"). It's called The Treachery of Images. His point of course is that the painting is not really a pipe, but merely a picture of a pipe. So far so good?

Now, a direct photograph of a person on a bike is the same; it's an image of the thing, not the actual thing. But this photograph, your photograph, is more than that. It uses another medium, the reflection, to make some magic. So what you have is an image of a puddle (not an actual puddle ... touch it; you won't get wet), but the person on the bike is now real! It's you - or more accurately, it's me ... it's everyone who looks at your photograph who's ever ridden a bike. If we rode a bike by a puddle, and we looked down, this is exactly what we saw. It's the real thing! By showing the person on the bike at one step removed from the literal photograph, you have liberated not just the image, but the viewer.

To me, that's what a camera is ... a wonderful, magical tool used to assay the imagination. Alas, most cameras are wasted on photographers instead.

10. And the small but perfectly proportioned Order of the Thumb:

wistful
by ursula

Comment:
It's the most lovely botanical photograph I've ever seen. If a photograph were a sweet, sad sonnet, this would be the photograph. And this would be the sonnet:

"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end."
- Wm. Shakespeare

10. And old Bill and I both award you the Order of the Thumb:

Hello Sailor
by MichaelC

Comment:
Wonderful. Photographing people of eccentric appearance is irresistible, but so many photographers, even quite famous ones, seem to seize the opportunity to make exploitative or patronizing images. There's no hint of the 'subject-as-a-curiosity' here. No freak show. Instead it seems to be a moment when this fabulous lady and this photographer met for an instant on equal terms. Not as performer and witness. Not as freak and robber. Just equals. And that's where the immense charm of this portrait comes from; from the rare lack of guile on the part of either party. There's no 'loser' in this moment of engagement; just two winners. 10. And, I'm afraid, the curse of the dreaded Order of the Thumb:

apples and dandelions
by timfythetoo

Comment:
One of the best examples of a good 'bad' photograph I've ever seen. Surely even DPC's leaden, lumpen 'technicals police' will see the point of this glorious poke in the snoot of convention? It's a sublime example of using a camera to see the unseen, and to liberate the essence of the subject. Apple, dandelion, spirit, exposure, frame ... I love it all. 10. And the scoring kiss of death ... the Order of the Thumb:

tab
by k4ffy

Comment:
It's very good. 9. And if you'd been brave enough to title it "Pop Art" instead, I'd have made it a 10.

Look to the future
by snaffles

Comment:
I like this very much. There is a lamentable tendency at DPC to believe that every portrait should have 'tack-sharp' focus on the eyes, and that every pore should be smoothed. But this superb photograph shatters all that. The uncertainty and ambiguity of the photography and the forensic mood of the lighting and composition are perfectly suited to the motivation of the portrait. You give us a three-dimensional person. Imagination. Anxiety. Unease. But not panic; there's a hint of resolution there as well. I'd put my trust in this person. 9.

Farrier's Work
by izadoodle

Comment:
First selective desaturation I ever saw that I really liked. But it's not really the selective desat that makes it; it's the selective focus. 8.

Time
by badger88

Comment:
Makes me think of Prince. Or the artist formerly known as Prince. Whoever he is now. 8.

dis'con·nec'tion
by Seanachai

Comment:
Well the theme is a good one, if not exactly rare (though this is a superior example) but the hidden gem within your hidden gem is that small, stout lady only part seen. Could she be clutching a cell phone too? Checking in with her office ... "Hi, it's me. No, totally bloody boring. No, nothing new at all. Complete waste of time. Any messages?"

Nuns on Ice
by Coley

Comment:
A classically good photograph. Or maybe I mean a good classical photograph. It's damn good (oops .. sorry, Sisters) either way. 8.