Christmas in the City
by milo655321

Comment:
A clever idea, to see and depict the building as the city reciprocal of the Christmas tree. There aren't a lot of truly thoughtful and meaningful images in this challenge, but this is certainly one of them.

Daily Routine
by ecameron

Comment:
The addition of the bicycle transforms this into a delightful whimsy. A simple idea, or inspiration, well executed. And it's a legitimate and witty "City Life" parody as well. All in all, pretty clever and very entertaining. Well done.

Man In Hat
by TheresaA

Comment:
This is a sparking good street photograph! As well as the stark composition-in-two-dimensions effect, which I like, there are several fascinating questions to engage the viewer. First, obviously: why that hat? Then there's the thing in his mouth - is it a whistle? Why? And the walking frame - it's in immaculate condition, and is of the type used by infirm or disabled people, yet he doesn't look like that at first glance. But he's not actually walking, is he? He seems instead to be standing still with his legs crossed, which is inexplicable. So who, and what, is he? He's certainly not a homeless person (walker, watch, clothes, grooming, etc - plus he's passing by a big bag containing valuable aluminum cans, without a glance). There are so many ambiguous and bizarre aspects to this subject that the viewer may conclude that the photograph is a deliberately staged absurdity. Yet I don't think that it is!
Is it a "City Life" photograph? Yep; it's got to be. Everything's possible in the big city, even this.

'coldplay' in toronto
by saintaugust

Comment:
That's one dedicated street musician! First I thought you should have cropped out the pole & the trees, but then I tried it and all city context was lost. It was no longer a photograph about the city; it became a photograph about the musician instead. Still good, but the meaning of it changed. Not, I feel sure, what you would have wanted. So you made a fine choice and a fine image as a result. Well done.

The Dearborn Canyon
by EastKentGolding

Comment:
I like this. I guess it's the combination of the powerful vanishing point with the motion blur of the cars in the foreground. Or maybe it's the perspective grid formed by all those windows and mouldings on the buildings. Either way, or even both ways, there's something satisfying and evocative about it. It says 'city life' for me, even though visible people are pretty scarce. If fact, the scarcity of people actually seems to add to the impact. And so does the unusual point-of-view; not street level, but not rooftop level either. And from part-way across the street, too. Lots of interest and lots to get the viewer involved.

Austin Healy
by messerschmitt

Comment:
Love this. The car actually looks like an Austin-Healy at first glance, because of the two-tone paint, but maybe that's just how they paint BMW's these days. Anyway, Austin-Healys were designed and built in England, so there's probably not one in the world still running any more.
Adi was quite right; the photograph is a wonderful ambush! I very much like the processing in your recent 'winter' work ... it's a spare and distilled look, cheerfully uncompromising, and challenges the viewer to a bit of a duel.

DIESEL for successful ass
by behemoth

Comment:
One of those rare and fleeting opportunities for a genuinely clever street photograph, and you grabbed it. It certainly doesn't look like a set-up shot, and assuming that it was not - well done! The juxtaposition of the girl's jeans-clad derriere with those on the poster, and the fact that she has clearly paused to reflect for a moment on the sado-masochistic DIESEL image, lifts your photograph way above the crowd here. Her cross-legged, perhaps even protective stance hints at a certain revulsion-fascination for the subject, but maybe that's just my lurid imagination. I suppose it might be argued that there's nothing necessarily "city life" about the essence of this scene, but I'd reject that by saying that this encounter between this girl and this poster could happen only in a city. Plus there's pigeons; a sure sign of a city location. Congratulations on producing a thoughtful photograph that actually has something intelligent to say about city life.
Just one complaint: that's an awful title for such a cerebral image.

Boards
by bbright

Comment:
This is what I feel the challenge was really about; to find a "hidden" pattern that shows an everyday object in a new light. Well composed, well captured and well processed.

Synchronized Swimming
by elsapo

Comment:
Damn! Had this sitting in among my 8's, ready to bump up & comment, and never got back to it in time. What I liked so much was the wonderful synchronicity, of course ... I felt that this was what the challenge was really about: finding patterns in unexpected places. I also liked the composition, providing three equal horizontal bands. Any minor technical limitations are, in my view, more than compensated for by the image's sparkling originality and harmony. The birds are, I think, not ducks but cormorants, yes?

Architectural Repetition
by Gatorguy

Comment:

Originally posted by ubique: Why's it agricultural? It looks more like a rural road bridge. Nevertheless, it's an interesting image of an "accidental" pattern, and one that would not be as effective seen from any other angle or position. And that's the interpretation of the challenge I prefer - finding unexpected patterns hidden in everyday objects. 7.

Edit: Sorry; I initially read agricultural instead of architectural. Alas, old age takes its toll.