The Games Cats Play. . .
by FranziskaLang

Comment:
Thank you all for your comments. This picture was taken Sunday afternoon, and while I knew it wasn't perfect I thought it was kind of fun anyway. The score certainly reflects that. To answer the questions, yes, this was the only shot I had, my cat went off cat treats (which you can see on the top of the tower, those are not my fingers) for the rest of the day. Yes, the tower did collapse, in fact, I wish I had taken the picture a split-second later, but that didn't happen.

I read up on working with photos in PhotoImpact after this, and found out just what I needed to do to sharpen and lighten the picture a little. Since I wasn't doing that one for the competition, I also included more of the left hand side and just cloned out some of the background which made me crop this way.

Last but not least, Mattias is still blending into the background, but I have to admit that I kind of liked that anyway.

Improved Photo

jumping of beds
by manolo

Comment:
This one could've been entered for stopped motion and (almost) from the ground up, too. I love the idea, however, the picture is too dark, you can barely make out the two faces. Try with a fill-flash next time?

BenchWarming
by sjgleah

Comment:
Great take on the challenge. I like it. Like the composition of the photo, too, shooting through the fence makes it stand out from your average sports shot. I know this is just one of those things, but the two layers of fence inbetween the camera and bench warmers makes the shot a little too busy. Also, what's the blue thing about the girl's head. Is that something that could've been removed before taking the shot?

ma~jong
by princewai

Comment:
I like that you actually placed some people into the picture. It does seem a little washed out overall, maybe a tad of color adjustment would've helpde.

Ten'll Get Ya Twenty
by Patella

Comment:
Simple, but good idea. IMO, the contract between light and shade is too severe.

More Of a Game To the Cat Than Us
by AquaGoddess12880

Comment:
Great idea, but the execution could've been much improved IMO by a different background and angle (straight on instead of from above). Black cats are also very hard to take photos of (I know, one of mine is black).

candyland
by lau

Comment:
B&w works well here. Things that I would try and change for this kind of planned shot: slightly higer angle to get rid of the reflection on the game board (even though I really like the heads-on angle, and wouldn't like to loose that - just something inbetween this and top-down). Clean up background (a black piece of cardboard placed at a little distance from the subject can easily do the trick). Although, your background is sufficiently out of focus to not be too distracting.

Keep your eye on the Birdie!
by rcrawford

Comment:
Wow, you've been reading about that superchallenge, haven't you. Stopped motion, from the ground up, games, red . . . not bad at all.

A Childhood Memory
by autool

Comment:
I like that you have a totally different take on this challenge and that you survived your childhood playing with knives! ;o) Good shot.

Worth the Risk!
by zerplord

Comment:
Good shot. I would zoom in just a little more (or crop a little more) to get rid of the bottom right corner of the game.