New Cygnets In Training
by Drake

Comment:
Has a impression of being over-sharpened, as though to negate the effects of slightly too slow an exposure, but the freezing of the water in motion suggests otherwise - perhaps too tight a crop on a small image, or something similar? Lacks the immediate sharpness of a real pop image, although its a great moment to capture for all that.

Need laundry
by russi

Comment:
Love the depth of field, but am unconvinced by your cropping: I would personally have framed things so that the focussed pegs were bottom left, and the unfocussed set top right - this way, there's a negative space below the focussed set that pulls the eye - as though there should be some illuminating element there, only there isn't anything beyond the blur of the doorway. I think perhaps you've only thought about the thirds rule in the horizontal axis - but it functions vertically too :-)

Fun On A Cloudy Day
by simbamba

Comment:
Something about the extreme sharpness of those edges speaks of an edited high-key exclusion of background, rather than a simple effect of exposure - and gives it an edited unreality that runs against the suggestion of spontaneity in the image itself. I don't like that effect, personally, though its very competently executed.

Tonawanda: Gateway to the Erie Canal
by lwkimages

Comment:
I think I'd personally have coloured it all in, rather than leaving the land in monochrome. There is some appeal for me in the effect, probably especially in the shade of red you've chosen ... but perhaps (and I'm searching for the right words to express my feelings about it here) it's rather more about the effect than the photograph.

Delta Bessborough
by leaf

Comment:
Lacks the depth of detail for a really fine shot, and perhaps also the contrast is overly heavy - shadow detail is missing, and highlights somewhat blown out. There's a feeling too of being overly warm coloured - like you haven't coped with the white balance required, like there may be more variety of colour in the light than you've captured, which might have added some depth of interest to the shot.

Schaumburg
by pitsaman

Comment:
whoa ... bring me salt now, before the sacharrine natue of this overwhelms me! Unbelieveably tweee and manufactured suburban scene - perhsp even the perfect definition of the concept. Wonderful evocation of thhe dreaful control of that environment though, the throttling of anything that ight subvert the control, even to the point of ensuring all the flowers grow in similar-coloured groups :-) The suggestion of perfect manicuring of the lawns, and you just know there isn't going to be a single mark on those cars :-) What a peculiar place ... and I really quite enjoy the threatening and awe-inspiring atmosphere of this shot.

Oak Bay, British Columbia
by ccraft

Comment:
Yeah, guide-book photography for sure. I guess in that sense you meet the challenge absolutely. And yet I can't help but be influnenced by the shots I've seen previous to this - those are the perils of being voted on in this manner. Somehow, that foreground golf course is an invidious element. nature tamed. the shot sets out to propose a life on the edge of the wilderness (that wonderful haze across the feet of the mountains, and the cragginess of them, and the bleakness of the show and sharp promontories there), and yet the hugely boring and suburban manicuring of a golf-course alonside it seems here to provide only a comment on man's inability to leave well alone, these days. Perhaps that is only the modern connotations of golf, child of the television that it is, and far removed from the battle against the elements that were its foundations ... but it certainly undermines the suggestion of loneliness of this scene at first view.

Spring, Philadelphia
by banmorn

Comment:
Not a bad shot at all - folows all the rules, really, and is 'properly exposed and focussed. It's just that ... well, that's all there is to it, really. Textures are a bit muted, but then that was inevitable when shooting for exposure as this seems t have been. Nothing much to criticise though, but also nothing uch to grab the attention.

Has Potential
by agwright

Comment:
Ha ha. Don't believe you! Entirely beside he point, of course :-) i mean, where the hell do you get your interent comection? Wonderful guidebook photograph, just perhaps lacking in a little impact of light. Whilst it's a v=beautiful, almost painterly moment, I think perhaps the contrast could have been pushed to take it out of the realm of the 'straight-from-the-camera' and into that of the exhibition a little more. This almost has the feeling of cut from a holiday brochure, which isn't what I'm looking for here. Wonderful compositionally, especially that point of view, however. And there is a subtleytly to the light as you have used it that is rather pleasing. Wonderfully serene sky, too - all in all, a marvellous moment. One of our Scots friends?

Village Shops
by Olyuzi

Comment:
Several strong compositional elements are let down because of a lack of a real subject: the shape, curve and lines of that parade of shops lead the eye to an area where there's nothing much going on - just pavement. Something happening at the junction of those two paths would make this shot, and make the foreground elements so much more impactful besides. Perhaps some work on the tones or the contrast would add effect as it stands, but colour-wise and light-wise this doesn't grab me.