Addiction
by digistoune

Comment:
A touch more care would have had you remove those dust specks from the lens. Neat composition. Like the mix of warm and cold light - always effective in communicating shape and yet letting us see everything.

I shall call him... MiniMe
by dan_pendleton

Comment:
Pretty good stuff - to my eye, you could have pushed the high-key background thing a touch more, and the mid-tone point is on the dark side: but you get the benefit of the doubt with folks' variations in monitors. Detail is good, poses good (luck or patience?).

Diseased Purple Cows
by DefyTime

Comment:
I have no intention of voting on this challenge, it's just too weird, but this has made me laugh so hard it shouldn't be legal. Absolutely fantastic work, just magic. I'll put a ten here so the comment registers, but expect it to disappear :-)

Ben A`an
by geewhy

Comment:
I think this may be a better photo, Gordon. I much prefer the subtlety, and the distribution of light, not to mention the distribution of your attention to processing here than in the ribbon winner. To see the roots and mud around them adds enormously to the impact - both in terms of settling the image, and in giving us a range of distance in the shot. It's more complicated than the other, or course - and equally of course, the more fascinating for it.

Freedom Flight
by marbo

Comment:
Excellently done Mark: gotta love Beachy Head as a photo venue.

Like the Wind
by Imagineer

Comment:
Focus Focus! I'm sure you don't need telling to ignore those cries, but another vote of confidence won't hurt, I'm sure. I never had the time to round to voting on everything, let alone adjusting those votes to their final standings, but this would i think have been high up that list, if not at the top. Sure some folks just don't go for the stylised thing, but some fine judges have approved wholeheartedly too.

I get the impression that you achieved exactly what you were after - truly competent work. One thing only would I change: that slightly weird heart-shaped patch of darkness image left (or eye shaped) - once seen it can't be escaped, and IMO of course, doesn't add anything.

And the first shot I've added to favourites in a while.

Message edited by author 2004-07-19 18:16:53.

Mark of the Wizard
by Imagineer

Comment:
Thanks for submitting this one John. Not just because of recently being under the knife myself, but for the rationale you've written with it, and the difference of it.

Monument Valley
by turdave

Comment:
This is an excellent shot - I urge you to work it up as a black and white, though - with decent conversion to keep the sky dark, and perhaps a general darkening of the foreground you could have a masterpiece. Breaking the 'rule' about centring the horizon in frame works very effectively here - adds to the sense of brutality of the landscape, the uncompromising nature of it, and you've kept both the sense of the size of the outcrops and the way in which they are dwarfed by their location - the combination of those two senses of scale really make the image huge. Great work.

My First Portrait Attempt! (My Son Karson)
by ConcreteDonkey

Comment:
Compositionally unbalanced - I don't see the benefit of all that negative space image left ... just looks like a mistake; especially whne it places your main subject on the terribly weak central plane of the image. The weight of this composition is more about the djembe than about the child. That said, the light is pretty good (though his head seems under-lit compared with his body, slightly), and there's texture to the clothes; the pose is awkward, and the expression a touch bizarre for a really happy formal portrait. 5

The Journalist
by Imagineer

Comment:
Good light - good control of exposure too - highlights are just in control, shadows have detail but still look like shadows. Good character in the face, though perhaps getting him to focus on the top of the page would have made the eyes feature a touch more: they're a bit too closed here, I think.