last summer
by bspurgeon

Comment:
Reading your other in-challenge comments and your (now viewable) notes; amazing how you managed to communicate with your audience so precisely.

Awarded for the April 2011 Free Study:

But into every life a little rain must fall.
by CrazyDiamond

Comment:
Very nice work. I gave this an 8.

Great Dames
by tanguera

Comment:
About time too!!! Excellent and righteous.

LB 1
by salmiakki

Comment:
The colours sit perfectly together. Well seen and made.

Grown men playing with dolls.
by RamblinR

Comment:
What an extraordinary scene - like a film set.

watching the everglades burn
by FourPointX

Comment:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: Fabulous colours and a marvellous texture to the sky - the streaks like dancing embers. I like the blur too - it brings the image to life and helps transport us; my face almost feels hot just looking at the image. The figures are compelling and we wonder about them - are they safe, are they culpable, are they know to you? Questions left unanswered and the image is all the better for it.

Critical stuff: Nothing really.

Overall: A great scene and one that you have done justice to.

Message edited by author 2011-05-08 02:21:09.

We Could Sail Away ...
by jomari

Comment:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: This is wonderful story telling, and on top of that an image within an image - linked by the narrative of your title. Both work together - the shadow picture and the boat study and to marvellous effect too. The slight overexposure keeps in light too - imbuing the image with a sense of wonder... Go darker and monochrome and the story changes and becomes more ominous. I'm glad you made this choice.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all.

Overall: More story than I might have thought possible in a single picture. Masterfully constructed.

last summer
by bspurgeon

Comment:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: There's something about this image that communicates loss, like the attempt of a grieving mind trying to recapture a precious moment. Everything about the image feels tenuous and fragile - think too hard and the image will go, perhaps forever. The technical and artistic choices you've made to conjure this image are remarkable.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all

Overall: Viewing this image is like having my eyes bypassed - the memory of another being planted directly into my mind.

Haleakala
by Breeee123

Comment:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: Goodness me. There are landscapes and landscapes! And this, this is a landscape!! Seriously though, the scene, the light, your capture of it, the sense of scale, the curve of the horizon, the clouds below the mountains - utterly magnificent. That swirl of the terrain suggestive of the coriolis effect works so well with that horizon, like we're at the top of our spinning planet looking down on it all.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all.

Overall: Not a normal pick for this comment series but it stands out as a landscape just as much as some of the more story based images I normally pick out.

I imagine you'll take the Blue. It'll be well deserved.

Tower
by otto22

Comment:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: Fabulous POV and composition and that reflected sunlight is the icing on the cake. I really enjoy that focus on the underside of the walkway and the texture so revealed. The relatively low contrast and toning is perfectly judged.

Critical stuff: Nothing

Overall: Standout composition and well chosen POV turns what might have been just a shot of a building into something fantastic.