Capitol Interlude
by blemt

Comment:
The balance of this is upset a touch by the figures' closeness to the frame and the space above the monument. I feel that I'm being lead to expect something in the sky there, and I don't find it - not even visual interest in the sky. Good overall idea though, for this challenge. Light is a touch bland - contrast could have been pushed further without harming things?

Paradise Park
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
As a portrait I miss some light to shape the back of the head, and to emphasise the glint of feathers. For this challenge, I'm not wholly sold on the absence of location. I could imagine it published in a guide, but were I editing I might prefer a similar shot with a sense of place to it. Not a major point perhaps, but significant. Great tonality, especially that eye; depth of field a little shallow? Sense of blurring around the outline of the beak seems odd in this composition.

Vancouver BC
by Cantique

Comment:
Near perfect for the challenge. Ordinarily I would find it quite bland, but this challenge somehow requires an element of that, I feel. Use of foreground to balance the classic waterside city view is spot on, maintaining interest and allowing motion for the eye, without ever trapping the visiion in one place. As an illustration of a place it has both the grand sweeep and the detail, the sense of some understanding rather than the grand gesture. I would perhaps have liked a touch of graduation of light, a slightly greater sense of distance maybe, but that's looking for the ideal, and in this instance you're prettty close.

World’s Largest Canoe Races Comes to Kona Each September
by scottwilson

Comment:
Can't see what is achieved by confining the interst of the image to the centre third of the composition here. It makes for uncomfortable viewing you see: as the eye moves through the subject area, one is constantly aware of the parallel space above and below, and one's eye is thus constantly drawn there - except there is nothing happening of real interest in either space - a very blank sky, and the reflections are not broken in an interesting manner, just seem very ordinary. As one's eye moves back up or down the frame, of course one is drawn to the other, opposite third of the image, where like wise there isn't much interest. the trick, the point of the 'thirds' composition is that whilst the eye is drawn away from the main subject, it is then returned to it, rather than to the other side of it, and it is that movement of area of concentration that helps the visual interest - generally, a better photo is one where the eye is required to move through the image, but which ensures it is not often allowed to find areas of little interest.

For this challenge, I would personally have cropped out a good deal of the water - given it's subject, this is not a challenge for experimentation.

Sorry to go on, but a lot of folks I guesss will make comments about centred composition, and this is an attempt to explain why, in this case, it's a bad thing. Your subject, however, is perfect for the challenge. A 5

Enchanted BC
by zeuszen

Comment:
There's an awful lot to really like here - a fabulous image. Is it drawn? It seems as though it could have been, or of course it could be a heavily mangled photograph. Outwith the intentions of dpc though, but nevertheless a great picture.

An Airplane Seat View
by Wildpurple

Comment:
Interesting as a view from a plane, but as a guide book shot? I just can't picture it in such a book, of any kind. Don't find the centred composition useful either - the point of those areas of dead space is ...?

Ons Island
by lsmart

Comment:
On the right lines, certainly. I find the foreround light a bit flat and uninviting - I think you could have used more contrast in that area quite happily. The composition also lacks something - there's almost a line of elements directly up the centre of the frame, and maybe if you could have framed this toa llow the gaze to sweep through the shot, rather than to be led directly up it, it would be more satisfying. Perhaps also the horizon is a bit too far up in the shot? The light in the sky and the clouds there seems inviting, but one's eye is so close to the edge by the time one sees it ... But good work, all the same.

take a hike
by colda

Comment:
What have you done to the sky? Burnt out and so put in a colour? That's how it looks - terribly flat. Good composition though, and pretty good exposure. I'd have tried a graduated fill on that sky, to give some sense of the real, but it's nevertheless a very tricky thing to achieve, so that failure perhaps souldn't cost too dearly.

Church of Hallgrimur, Reykjavik, Iceland
by siggi

Comment:
Much more to the point than the black-and-white one ... I'm wondering how many more shos of it there are going to be. For the challenge, pretty good I'd say although the perspective distortion might have been lessened a touch. Great light, perhaps only a touch too subtle for a travel guide. Pretty close though.

Church of Mary Magdalene, Minsk, Belarus, Built in 1847
by skief

Comment:
Slight wide-angle effect is a touch disorienting for me - has that falling over backwards feeling, a bit off-putting in this challenge. Technically accomplished otherwise, compositionally just a touch heavy in the centre without enough weight of interest to off-set that.