Progression
by zeuszen

Comment:
Great work, congrats. Beautiful light here, and the sun in the misty air is fabulously caught. One of my favourites from this crop.

Painting the urban landscape
by Chez

Comment:
Should have won ... by a distance the best shot in this challenge for me.

Urban shopping center
by ladpupmoe

Comment:
Intersting dynamic of shapes, though the interruption of the lamp-post is I think rather a distraction than an intersting addition. I'd alos have been tempted to either crop out the cars or completely get them in shot: this way they look accidental, rather than a deliberate part of your composition. A good start though ...

The Lyric Theater Back Door
by pocketed

Comment:
Strangely enough, I used to work at a Lyric Theatre (in Hammersmith, London UK), where the back door was even less appealing than this! Like the interplay of colours here, though it looks a lot like an unconsidered snap-shot, and I don't think will do well on dpc. A pity, as it has a lot going for it - a nice study of the ignored spaces of our nasty urban world, huh? And right behind one of the places you'd expect to have a little more awareness ...

Skylight
by Konador

Comment:
Bllody hell Ben, I've just come across this on a trawl through the site (actually by way of JJ's favourites): thought I'd seen all the really great photographs on this site, but his selections are almost as much a revelation as his photos.

Wonderful stuff: the cleanness of those lines, the half-hidden window that makes me want to move into the shot to see what's hidden. Almost worthy of Kertesz, in the sense of finding the extraordinary in the absolutely everyday.

Ed

Hey Kid! Follow Me
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
Oh look, he said in a slightly sarcastic voice, guess who i get to write a CC for: and I even deliberately left it a little later this week, just to change the chances :-)

Like this shot very much Anna - particularly the world inside the bubble: especially as the rest of the world, the world around and outside it, is completly out of focus. Can't believe the score - thought this must at least have scored a six, but perhaps people don't look closely enough - they just see a couple of bubbles and move on.

I think I would have called it something like 'a floating world' and tried to bring the emphasis more onto the view insude the bubble, rather than highligting the fact of their being two bubbles - that at least is what i find most striking visually and emotionally here.

A couple of other things: the swirl of the trees in the bubble-world almost makes a ying/yang sign, which is also a good touch, and the distortion (like a fish-eye lens) of that scene - a close up of the one bubble might have served as a Nostalgia photo (though again, no-one much here would have appreciated it).

One of your best, in my opinion. Great stuff.

Future Pilot
by Sonifo

Comment:
Congrats Sonja - should have been a blue IMO, but I guess you can't complain about a red:-) My only (very) slight criticism would be that it's just a touch twee for me - a little sentimental? But that would only be enough to cost you a tenth of a point. Beautiful work.

Elk
by Gallatin

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club ...

Well, evidently people think of Macros as hyper-close-ups, and there is an argument that says it 'really' means images larger than actual life, but whatever ... you certainly fulfill the specifics of the challenge - it's just others' opinions of what counts that's cost you in the voting.

There's a 'rule' in portraits, even of animals, that the secret of taking good shots is to have the eyes in focus, and you haven't quite got that here: whether it's a slight movement from the animal, or a slight camera shake, or just slightly off focus I can't tell, though i'd guess one of the former two.

enough DOF to put the background nicely out of focus, though i think if you could have caught it against a darker surrrounding that would also have helped. The light is also a little flat - not bad, really, but I think a touch more definition and shape from more directional light would also have helped.

The final result is underservnigly low though: these faults aren't so great as the score would suggest to me; though likewise, it isn't an unimprovable photograph.

HTH

Ed

Pigeons
by rickhd13

Comment:
memorable shot, but I'm undecided as to whether or not the processing really adds anything worth adding. I think perhaps it does: a little sense of mystery, perhaps. Feel there's a lack of depth to the image however - they all seem to pretty much the same distance away (obviously they aren't, but the range isn't so great). I think also it might have been a pretty dull image without the level of processing, and whilst it helps that it can't really completely mask it. Still gets a 8, for mood if nothing else.

Future Pilot
by Sonifo

Comment:
Different from the run-of-the-mill birds and aeroplanes that were to be expected, but you haven't compromised despite the great idea: excellent composition, location, and technical work. manges to create an aspirational feel - somehow it looks like an old-fashioned kid out playing, a kid who never heard of Flight Simulator. My top of this challenge.