Spot
by freakin_hilarious

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: A devoted study of bokeh. Very bold! Made more so by your choice to present this in monochrome. I think that choice works though, the overlapping multiple shades of grey is a little mesmerising.

Critical stuff: Such pieces only have so much interest to offer - I think you have made a good job of what's here but I'm sure that's enough to enthral a viewer.

Overall: Effective as far as it goes but I'm not sure it pushes enough of my buttons to be truly enjoyable.

Bridal Breather
by vlado

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: A great slice of life offered up here - this has a really gritty feel and juxtaposes perfectly with fantasy notions of romantic bridal perfection! The through-the -wire POV accentuates the mood you have created and also serves to ground the image so well within a real world context that we feel we are looking directly and not through the proxy of a photograph.

Critical stuff: Nothing really.

Overall: Highly effective with bags of story.

Old Soul
by AllenP

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 a spectacular portrait - the light and the skin texture is superb. The subtle coloration supports the image beautifully, as does the highly effective vignette.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all.

Overall: Top notch, one of the best portrait images I've seen for a while.

Storm
by Rino63

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 a very well structured image - your edit complements the scene perfectly. And what a scene it is... dynamic and slightly dangerous, the wild sea make the person look very fragile.

Critical stuff: Not much at all - perhaps a slightly different crop but that's just personal taste.

Overall: A very effective image.

where flowers go to die
by pointandshoot

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 lovely - the slight glowiness, the way the flowers are tucked away in the corner - the foreground negative space that forces us to keep our distance and creates a sense of furtiveness... all very effective. The toning is particularly nice too.

Critical stuff: Nothing.

Overall: I really like this. The empty bottom half of the image makes it for me.

The Extrovert
by Wildcard

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: What a great colour palette! Lovely hues and blurry goodness combine to offer up something pretty, mellow but still with a slight edge and the suggestion of a story.

Critical stuff: I sure your choices have contributed to the mellowness of the image but I think I might have been tempted to take up the black level just a tad.

Overall: Very wall-hangable; reminiscent of a CPN.

glissade
by skewsme

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 very well done indeed - just the right amount of motion, sharpness, contrast and brightness to convey a sense of crystalline ghostliness. Very often image that seek to reduce an image to basics can fail as the process removes rather than reduces, destroys rather than distils. You've avoided that and have managed to conserve and even augment the vital elements of this scene.

Critical stuff: Not much at all.

Overall: A very likeable image, well executed, well understood and well communicated.

last leaf
by charliebaker

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 certainly bold! The 2 bit colour depth reduces the scene to its most basic form - this isn't without appeal to some.

Critical stuff: The image is extreme enough to appear cynical - I think that is a problem. Although the outline shape has a certain appeal, this really isn't an attractive image and as a consequence it is hard to like. It doesn't communicated much story or much else to me other than your photographic will - perhaps that was your intention.

Overall: You obviously not submitted this with then intention of pleasing the masses but even with my most interpretivistic hat on I'm coming up short when trying to appreciate this image.

Storm Debris
by Scoman

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: I like how 'limited' this image is - by that I mean controlled, constrained, framed, defined. I'm always fascinated how we can get more structure out of the OOF focus areas than the areas we have focussed upon - this phenomenon ensures that the periphery of the image isn't lost but contributes to the image as a form of natural framing.

Critical stuff: There is a downside to constraining an image to this degree - the intrinsic interest level is quite low and I fear that this is an image that will fascinate few. The inanimate nature of your subject makes it hard to create any story and I imagine the voting hasn't been too kind.

Overall: The image is very good at what it is very good at! It is effective in its own way, but it isn't an image I can image returning to just to look at.

Piano Man
by Abra

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: A most lovely portrait benefitting from highly effective lighting. The crisp focus on the hands and the paintingish softness of the rest of the image conspires with the coloration and lighting to produce something quite special.

Critical stuff: I have mixed feelings about the surface at the bottom of the image and the wall moulding on the right - they seem to intrude and detract a little but if I mask them out with my hands the image seems diminished. On balance I think their presence gives context and life to the image.

Overall: An image that gets better and better the more you look at it. So much so that by the time I've got to the end of my looking and writing I feel a need to fav it.