Exploring Black Mesa
by wyverndragon

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: The POV and leading lines are excellent compositional elements. I like the colours too.

Critical stuff: The guy in the background looks like he's singing a camp musical number - that kind of clashes with the rest of the image. I just can't take it seriously - sorry.

Overall: I think I see what you were going for, but given the reference in your title, you miss the required mood by a mile. I am sorry to be harsh though. I promise that I tried to like it.

July
by tnun

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: bold abstract with really nice colours - always good to see people taking a chance in the Fre Study. I like that I can still see this is a vase of flowers.

Critical stuff: I like the image, but I think it is suboptimal, the colour are great but the junction between them jars a little. I think adding some diffusion in your workflow would have worked wonders to mellow the image a little.

Overall: Very nearly there, but falls just a little short of my sweet spot.

Eye see you
by DrAchoo

Comment:
Startling high macro image. Lovely coloration too. I don't get nearly this quality with my macro images. I'm wondering if this is Jason's entry.

Sailing Thru Gradients
by macwilyum

Comment:
Unusually well balanced in so many ways.

Boys of Summer
by npasel

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 am a fan of Lensbaby images, so you have a headstart - additionally, I like the subject matter and the high contrast, I'm glad you've let the highlights blow.

Critical stuff: More here than I'd like to put down, but here goes.... Although the selective focus is in the right place, it is missed slightly - I wonder what aperture ring you used... I know how tricky the LB can be to use. I do respect your use of colour here and in a way it does bring something unique to the image but my poor conditioned brain yearns for this to be in monochrome, with a vignette... Does that make me complicit in the propagation of a cliched image.... Probably.

Overall: I like your overall vision here, but I perhaps need to evolve my own tastes before I can fully appreciate it's merits.

Failing Light
by hesitant

Comment:
Subtle tones and the leading lines make this a standout landscape.

Mysterium tremendum et fascinans.
by rooum

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 that this is here in the Free Study offering - it stands out from the crowd. Coloring is fairly gorgeous and the lighting is perfect for the scene. The compositional elements are of course eclectic. I also like the way the texture of the individual pieces are apparent.

Critical stuff: The image is perhaps over-contrived; not really a problem in itself, whenever we point a camera at something and choose our framing we create something that is contrived. Here though, it seems a little forced... Almost cynical, and of course the title doesn't help. It hasn't escaped me it could just be an ironic image and by me even attempting to construct a comment like this for a bunch of stuff in a basement I fall into the trap.

Overall: Whatever your intention with this image, it has engaged me, it has made me question what we / I value in an image, surely forcing that reflection upon a viewer constitutes art. Here, viewing has become dialogue - and that dialogue (if not the image) was emergent and natural, not contrived.

Gold in Blue Waters
by haze

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: Very effectively done, the bold framing offer by the architecture, the dividing line between your air and water elelements, the subtle reflection - all good stuff. Of course the fish is the star.

Critical stuff: Should the fish (singlular) be the star? Or should the fish (pleural) be the stars. I 'm not sure.... I feel a little cheated - perhaps this one was a different colour, but the overall effect is one of it escaping selctiving coloring / desaturation.

Overall: I do like this, but not quite as much as I would like to have.

The Offering
by Simms

Comment:
Beautifully done.

This Land is our Land
by Dennisheckman

Comment:
Nice scene, but a ruinous border. I know I'm generally border phobic, but I can't be the only person who thinks this.