Pops
by toddhead

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. Excellent bold close up portrait. Ring flash? I really like the strong highlights and the cool coloration.

2. His expression is compelling - a slightly wry smile. I wonder how long you took to get this so absolutely front on. His median sagittal plane is pretty much exactly perpendicular to the sensor.

3. It's a great crop too - intersecting the hat logo and neckline draws attention to and emphasises his face.

Overall, a standout portrait.

Spinning in the Winter Wind
by Yandrosxx

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. This is gloriously dynamic and such fun too.

2. The amount of blur is just perfect - I like how we can see a good deal of the background context whilst still giving a good sense of movement.

3. Her expression is wonderful and contagious.

4. Your selected aperture is a perfect match for the demands of the shot allowing you to crisply capture your subject.

5. You've made a really good job of the toning too.

One of those images where everything comes together.

January Sunrise
by Judith Polakoff

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. Oh what tremendous colours! That yellow with the duck egg blue sky - fantastic.

2. The snow-covered foreground foliage is a really nice touch, something to peer over and locate us in the image.

3. Brilliant light you have captured - the secret really to the image's power.

Overall: extraordinarily effective.

The Couple
by markwiley

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. Great sense of depth with those leading lines and people diminishing as they go into the distance.

2. It's fascinating how the vectors mean that those figures in your proximity are motion blurred while those distant (and walking away from you) remain pristine.

3. I really like how you have the tonal range well covered - great shadows, great highlights and brilliant mid tones too.

4. I really enjoy the figures at the end of the tunnel.

Overall, a really engaging image.

Hope
by Neat

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. I find the POV staggeringly effective and really enjoy the eclectic composition - I suppose this was chosen for you given the position of your subject but nonetheless I enjoy its uneasy balance.

2. The juxtaposition of the gull and people on the platform works so well - not only does it give the image depth but it sets a broader context that conjures a richer spectrum of imaginary (associated) sounds.

3. I really pleased you went for black and white here, I don't think colour would be nearly so effective.

Overall, it makes me want to be there. Enough said.

Daydream
by Cuttooth

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. Mainly, I think that there is a glut of landscapes/waterscapes in DPC Free Studies and mostly I find them a bit dull. Occasionally though, some are soooo well done that they elevated themselves and the genre to hit the sweet spot in my brain. This is one of those.

2. What gorgeous colours - would have been easy to boost the saturation and pull out the yellow on that third boat - instead you've shown great and sympathetic restraint, pulling out the natural coloration that gives a great sense of realism.

3. The boats offer a great sense of perspective and depth leading the eye into the image.

4. Your clarity is superb - sharp but not too sharp, quite difficult to pull off with re-sized, re-compressed jpegs.

Overall, this is lovely. Perfectly judged.

Dimensional
by Dennisheckman

Comment:
This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 9s - I like it a lot. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. Your capture of the architecture is great perfectly centred with an almost hypnotic effect.

2. The walking people make all the difference adding human interest and a sense of scale - I get the sense that you waited them too.

3. The overall composition / portrait orientation is pretty spectacular - this is so well seen, I wonder many people just walk on by without taking in this wider scene.

Overall, I really like the mix here, plenty to look at and great balance.

Cat Among The Pigeons
by jagar

Comment:


Awarded for Best Of 2012


This is a new comment series for me, so please bear with me while I find my style!

(Voted earlier)

This is one of my 10s - I like it very much. Furthermore I think it enriches the DPC collective portfolio. Put simply, I wish we saw more stuff like this. Let me tell you why it pushes all the right buttons for me:

1. It's a magic moment and you John have a habit of being able to find them. I believe Don asked you before (in relation to this shot) if you were a witch. It's a fair question!

2. The compositional elements are so good as to defy the candid nature of the shot - her expression, the multiple birds, the telephone-line-perch, the curious/hopeful cat, the repeating window pattern, the strong vertical lines and the dappled render of the building.

3. Your characteristic glowy sharpness is present as ever, I've tried to emulate and always failed. You've even shared the settings, but mine never look like this.

4. I'm returning to the verticals - I presume you perspective corrected this - it's made a difference; it is clean and neat.

But overall, it's the magic you bring in putting it all together. A great photo is one that is more than the sum of its parts. You manage to pull that off often, but here you have outdone yourself.

Bravo.

H20: The Horror of the Helpless
by Paul

Comment:

Originally posted by Abra: I left you a comment during voting. I'm sure I did! (I must of stuffed up at the time). What I wanted to say is that this is such a wonderful image and I wanted to know if she (Helen hehe) was in some sort of tank? Congrats on the TT finish.

She was in a pool so I was wet for this one. Using a housing for my canon G11.

Tom's Passion
by h2

Comment:
Well done - you are on a front page roll. Immaculate presentation as ever.