Respect
by laposto

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 are so many elements I like in this image and I like the drama and story it suggests too. Technically it is excellent - great clarity and very effective lighting. Nothing too valuable is lost in shadow. The background graffiti coupled with the tattoos and the contrast you have created between skin and white walls is amazing. The markings on the models face add to the drama of the scene and offers a cinematic feel... a story to be told here.

Critical stuff: Nothing

Overall: Masterful stuff

Forever Young
by Senay

Comment:
This is n exceptionally well lit and executed portrait.

Beachcombers
by Melethia

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 great image, the shadowy figures are perfectly silhouetted and the overall light you've captured here is superb. The very slight coloration (or is that my screen playing tricks!?) is very effective - if this is a monochrome image then the toning you have applied works so well to convey warmth and depth.

Critical stuff: Nothing

Overall: A really great image, I'm glad I got to look at it for a while.

A Quiet Hideaway in the Big Apple
by Sioux

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: An interesting POV and one that works really well - it combines scale very nicely; the small body of water placed onto the big city. It must have been really tempting to invert this vertically and I respect your choice to keep it this way up.

Critical stuff: Personally, I think it has more impact the other way up, the branches then becoming a visually metaphor for being rooted in the city and (for me) they become less dominant in the image.

Overall: Effective work - nicely found.

Urban Dreams
by mzrowan

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 is certainly some visual glue that holds this piece together - it feels consistent and holistic. I'm really not sure what the mark on the ground is but its angular curves resonates with the painted message. The inclusion of the tree gives a sense of scale to the scene.

Critical stuff: I think the toning here is a bit flat and the overall clarity of the image is (probably deliberately) muted. The overall intrinsic interest in the scene doesn't excite me too much but I can see that much of the appeal is in the capture an presentation of this quite ordinary part of the world and how that might contrast (or offer ironic reflection) when placed against the meaning of the message.

Overall: Thought provoking but ultimately (for me) visually unsatisfying.

Ominous
by Retroesque

Comment:
You have the measure of this scene, the clouds are the star and you have composed the frame perfectly, with exactly the optimal mix of sea, city and sky.

The contrast handling in the cloud area is just flat out brilliant and the sense of darkness at the left of the image really is ominous.

I think I know who's image this is but that's not going to stop me giving a score - great work.

Eye Spy
by JimiRose

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 unconventional portraits and this one is no different in that regard. The partial face works really well, the nailed eye focus and the expression hold our interest really well. I love the background too, especially the coloration of the scene - it reminds me of Nik software's 'ink' filter in Color Efex Pro; one of my favourites.

Critical stuff: Nothing

Overall: A very effective image benefitting from a great and brave choice of composition.

Born to run...
by GrayElla

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 the narrow scope of this image; you have found a small piece of our world and made it the subject of your image - the inclusion of some background scenery emphasizes how tiny a part of our world this is and the car becomes more significant as a result. I think the coloration / toning works well to.

Critical stuff: Sharpness. I think this is too soft to be truly effective, the brain gets bothered by it and ceases to be interested in your scene.

Overall: Conceptually strong but with some technical deficits.

Star trails, windmill and tulips
by william88

Comment:
Another fantastically well done star trail image, once again this image humbles me as a photographer - this is well off the scale of what I could achieve and it makes me sit up and take notice. Stunning clarity, amazing DOF, perfect coloration, lovely composition. I think this will have very wide appeal too - my bet for the blue.

slack
by posthumous

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 really like these sorts of images where form and movement win out over detail and conventional representation. There is just the right amount of form here to communicate your subject and the amount of motion blur conveys a great sense of dynamism. I also really like the structursnon the right of the image, they give the impression of pending destination and ground the rider into an environmental context.

Critical stuff: Nothing

Overall: Very compelling work. I like it a lot.