Oh..oh. Is this my future?
by camelotnorth

Comment:
Hi from the CC, Betty.

Ooh. Didn't see this one - didn't vote. I love the effect, but I would imagine you were done for taking this too far away from photography, and into more art areas. Whilst that was obviously within the rules, I still think people were looking for stuff that was more clearly photos.

I'd be very interested to see the original - did it still manage to have that intensity of heat that you've caught with this? If so then I'd agree with the comment about the brush filter.

It fots the challenge clearly though, and there's certainly a quality to it that deserves far more than it's score or placing. Without the greyness at the bottom of frme it would be nothing though - very well done there.

Good luck

Ed

for sale
by ursula

Comment:
hi from the Critique Club Ursula

Lucked out? Guess so. difficult to make any really useful points about this - technically its absolutely fine, and it has some outstanding points: love the composition - the three lines of distance from the rocks, the beach and the fog line, the balance of the boat and the disappearing line of the fog, all excellent. Minor point - think I'd have tried to keep the top of the aerial in shot, but that's very minor indeed.

For me it lacked a real feeling of desolation - not quite that strong an emotion I thought - though your assessment of the voters ideas is clearly more accurate than mine :-)

Love the light, the contrast, the progresion of tones here too.

Ed

Summer in Orlando
by jcven

Comment:
You seem to have caught a great quality of light here - there's a real natural feeling to it that many people struggle to get. The artefacts and pixelation are a bit of a nightmare though - especially on the distant details. What happened? A real shame.

The Look Fall 2003
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
Hi Anna - you seem to be my oersonal critique club victim :-)

Didn't vote on this challenge - too tied up in having a shot with a chance to see it all clearly - but I did look through all the entries quite closely; and liked this, a lot.

I can see why it didn't appeal to most voters though: no tricksy composition, no unusual element, nothing very 'arty' about it. But I liked the idea of fake perfection it puts across - even that plastic sheen from the flash comes across well there - like a comment that all our futures are moving inexorably towards this perfection of look as dictated by the magazines and pointless TV shows. Unfortunately the title kind of puts this out of consideration as what you were trying to achieve - but hey, I still see it.

Ed

A Mother's Love
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
Hey Bob - just goes to show how much the challenge has to be obviously met in a shot to score: I think this'd have won if you'd had some really close foreground stuff to shoot through or around, or something that was more immediately visible than the foliage there is: it blends in with the rest if the trees etc. too quickly for those voters ruching past it: got to nail 'em quick, mate.

Ed

City Wall
by muckpond

Comment:
hi Rob - your critique club moment.

My first reaction to this is that the dynamic range seems very narrow - no real whites, no real blacks, but then I wondered why I felt that was a problem. I think I'm a bit too used to this kind of image - possibly only because I live very near a major business district in London, and see this stuff all the time - so the distortion of the reflections has little impact; because of that familiarity I was looking for another element - maybe a double reflection, or some detail of texture, or of light to surprise me a little, and not really finding it. The panels between the glass are uniform, almost textureless. The distortion itself is rather middle-ground to me - not completely wierd, nor very slight: just what I would expect, in short.

It's an entirely competent shot technically, of course - as I'd expect from someone who could take that Corne photo - and obviously meets the challenge well enough. It's just a bit ordinary, I think; a bit lifeless - which is what people are after with the colour and contrast comments, I'd guess.

All the best

Ed

hacker of the future
by Seanachai

Comment:
Congratulations Sean - great work, great result.

In Through The Out Door
by ChrisW123

Comment:
Damn, Chris I meant to leave a comment on this shot and didn't - just spottd it whilst browsing through the full results. I was one of your 8's - and I only rated three photos higher.

I love the colour and depth here - those repeating layers fading a little as they recede, excellently done. I also think that perhaps more than any other shot this REALLY met the challenge - as in 'the strength of the composition' etc. : both the odd foreground blur, and the echo of it in the window-frame really pull they eye in. A difficult trick to pull off, and it's no surprise that most of us went for depictions of right angles rather than employing them as a compositional device.

There's a powerful feeling of mystery in this shot too, of a kind of yearning - it reminds me of books like Le Grande Meaulnes, or HG Wells's green door ... something glimpsed fleetingly and perhaps never to be found again: so a sense of loss also.

Most good work. Overlooked by the audience here, evidently, but yours is not the only lost photo :-)

Ed

Message edited by author 2003-08-13 18:32:17.

Going Up?
by dsidwell

Comment:
Now that's a low score for a blue - bet you're surprised to see this. Excellent work - and the best kind of revenge on the loony security guards :-) congratulations.

Silver with Petals
by cosmichaiku

Comment:
Would love to know how this is lit - my guess would be a single overhead softlight - well maybe a touch behind the subject, though it could also be a window without direct light in a darkened room I suppose. Caught the texture fabulously, and the number of contrasts with those petals is amazing. I think I\'d have kept all of each petal in the shot though - I\'ve no problems with the frame being out of it, but the petals on the edge make it look like the final crop wasn\'t in the original plan.

Top work though, despite those minor niggles.

Ok - on final review, you win - the only ten i give this challenge.