The Real Price of Freedom
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
oh alright then :-)

I both love and hate this photo, I think. he makes a wonderful subject - meaningful, both proud and humble simultaneously, affecting, solemn, and questioning: especially in the context of a great number of the other shots in this challenge.

I find the title a bit annoying: but I think that's a cultural difference as much as anything - we're less inclined to such public displays of certainty in Europe.

Technically, however, I think it's a disappointing shot: poorly framed (cutting of the edge of the wheeel and the boot), overly and unevenly flash-lit, purely illustrative in its composition, and ordinary in it's physical view-point. It gives a strong impression of your having been content once you'd seen this subject to simply point the camera at him, everything set to auto, and shap one shot, with no further thought toward what might make imprvements on such a straightforward shot - a different angle of view, a wider or closer framing, or anything. So much so that for me it distracts from the imapct of the image quite considerably.

Ed

"The village time forgot"
by jonpink

Comment:
meant to comment on this during the challenge, but never managed to get back to it. So many shots in this challenge were simply of old things - and on the face of it, so is this: but your toning, and the absence of people, or to my eye any sign of human activity after the building of these houses, puts it into a more meaningful category - saying something of the loss and other feelings inherent in the title of the challenge. Good work.

Home Stretch
by amsmyth

Comment:
Something odddly distracting about the red horse having all four feet off the ground :-) There's a lack of detail too - texture to the horses, and details of the flying dirt have been lost - perhaps too much zooming or cropping?

Pool Balls in Motion
by jdw91479

Comment:
Some lens distortion, and the lighting seems a bi odd - brighter one end of the table than the other: not sure that the hand isn't too far out of frame for a really attention-grabbing composition, too.

Country in my heart
by pitsaman

Comment:
One of few photos to capture the real quality of loss suggested in the challenge title. Beautiful, of course: but perhaps a bit too simple for me to give top marks to - excellently done though.

First look at summer snapshots.
by jjbeguin

Comment:
I'm sure you'll get panned for the negative space - and indeed it took me a few moments to get the hang of it myself, but the extent to which it adds a feel of isolation, loneliness, to this image is marvellous. Emphasises something which has been missed by almost every entry, which is the longing and sadness implicit in the word Nostalgia. Top work again JJ.

I'm Ready for my Closeup...
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
Top work Bob. Must say I approve of your technique and approach as described in your notes - though i think if you were, say, holding a gin and tonic in the other hand rather than a phone it would improve the shot :-) Congratulations (from someone who spent hours slaving over a shot ...)

Smily Eyes
by Jacko

Comment:
Congrats Jacko: everyone said your were going to win, which I thought would be a jinx - great work to avaoid that :-)

The secret life of termites
by jjbeguin

Comment:
Whoa, JJ mon ami - this must be the best photo ever to get last place :-) Love the fact that you got a few 10's though - there is hope here yet.

Way Back to School
by DougPaz

Comment:
Hey Doug - greetings from the critique club.

Well, everyone commented on it just about, and I'm sure you thought it yourself, but the contrast range is the major issue with this shot: it just cries out for some of those tones to get closer to white (I've just made the same mistake myself, in the repetition challenge, without the excuse of no editing too).

The toning works for the scene, of course, and beyond the brightness/contrsat issue it's a fine shot: evocative - perhaps more of an imagined past than one that seems very real to me. I never trust these re-creation places, always ask myself how diffferent it would be with twenty shouting kids in it, for example (surely never this clean!).

I think it lacks something to kick it into the 6's scoring-wise. Something dynamic, either in subject matter or the way you've dealt with it. It's a very straightforward shot at the moment. Couldn't tell you what that thing is, though :-)