- Candid Character Study -
by kevrobertson

Comment:
As one of your 15 highest votes, I saw this as an interesting portrait that captures character and sets a mood, but I also thought the darker face shadows hide detail that would have been good to have.

No comment from me during voting partly because I am a newcomer and was still trying to calibrate myself in voting (being clear internally about why I think what I think makes it easier to be constructive). As the recipient of some helpful comments already, I appreciate how useful they can be.

Amusement @ the Fair
by annig

Comment:
I usually avoid going on that ride because it makes me feel exactly like that image. The blur reveals just enough identifiable elements to convey a story given the explanation, but it works pretty well as an abstract too.

Message edited by author 2007-08-08 10:28:31.

"Take a look at the guy"
by Arancha

Comment:
When this one popped up during voting, I laughed out loud. Great fit with the title. And nicely done black and white conversion. I had it in my top ten for this challenge, and still do.

I Am Waiting
by Judi

Comment:
Excellent shot, and even more appreciated finally getting to see the notes about how you got it. Can't understand why the average rating wasn't higher - I put it easily in the the top 10 for sharpness, composition, and fitting the theme.

day 6 - going-up cropped
by GinaRothfels

Comment:
Interesting. Removing the brighter stuff on the left in the original helps make this more dramatic to my eyes. Having the upright post appear a lot thicker this time catches me by surprise, and seems to reduce the sense of motion. I see that you are keeping a square crop, but I wonder why. Cropping the original to a vertical rectangle might keep the post looking thinner, and allow the gold diagonals to be longer, but at the price of giving up the square format. Still, I like both versions, each in its own way.

day 6 - going up
by GinaRothfels

Comment:
I like the diagonal gold lines and the strong upright support beam. The woman is just blurred enough and nicely separated from the beam. When I hold my hands up to the image, I think it might be even stronger with the left side cropped just enough to remove the rectangular bright area (display window?), which seems to detract from the main elements, and perhaps to remove half of the yellow triangle in the lower right (which becomes a bit more distracting after cropping the left, although I'm less confident about this). As a newcomer, I feel a bit of hesitation weighing in with any suggestion about an image posted by one who has so many excellent works and high scores. But sometimes new eyes see things differently because of not being there when the image was captured. I'm not suggesting you change your post again, but you might make those changes in a second version just to see if they work for you.

The World As I See It II
by levyj413

Comment:
I like this one much more than the other version, I think because of the colors and because of how well the elements hang together. The dark background makes an excellent contrast and sets off the gold tones well, the effect of colored balls (like party lights) contrasts with an obvious street setting, focused shapes through the glasses contrast with blurry shapes outside of the frames. This could be put into a teaching file as example of how a photographer can translate an rather mechanistic intellectual concept for an image into an artistic rendition.

Cool, Calm and Collected
by gtjewell

Comment:
Very nice reflections. Wish the horizon could be level.

A "Wii" ACE
by Quigley

Comment:
The expressions capture it all, fitting the challenge so well that I went up a level in scoring despite the technical limitations. Besides, you have to grab the picture in the moment, so you probably didn't have had time to set up more elaborate lighting or even diffuse the flash.

Spider's Spinnaker
by annig

Comment:
Peaceful and flowing, with just enough of the web in focus to make it more interesting. Nicely done.