Ears and viskersby
dimitriiComment: Hello from the Ctitique Club -
I like what you did here with the cliche challenge. Given that cliche implies some syrup, you took the "oooh cute cat" theme and gave us a nasty looking cat. Oh, I mean the cat is beautiful and unusual looking but he sure is giving us a the evil eye. But with all the detail in his coloring and stripes, why isn't he in focus? It seems to me that you had a nice cat, liked his expression, but oh no, it's not in focus, so you give it a title which implies that you intended for only the ears and viskers to be in focus. So who has the accent? Your Mom? The cat? I'm disappointed in this photo, actually. The cats expression is what makes it interesting and the eyes and nose are both such an interesting shade of blue. I can't forgive what I see to be a problem with the focal point on the short DOF.
When I look at your work as a whole, or what you have submitted here, it is inconsistant. That makes me think that you are sometimes just careless or or don't care. Some of your pictures are SOOO SUBERB and indicate so much pre planning and post planning. My very favorite is the one with the hangers. Since that one caught my eye, I have been checking your profile periodically to see what else you would post to astound me with, Several more times you have taken my breath away- the body parts challenge for one, the girl looking in the mirror for another. I gave the square shadow a ten also. So why submit a half hearted cat?
Background? What is the blob in the upper right corner? Why not crop it out?? And the white wrinkly stuff doesn't add any interest for me either.
What about the composition? That cat is smack dab in the middle of the frame. Why? What is he glaring at? Give us a hint. Whatever he hates is off to the left, that makes the empty space on the right of the photo irrelevant. How about a tighter crop? There are some potential leading lines formed by his facial stripes, ears and whiskers that could all point int towards the cats eyes, but they aren''t strong enough to compete with the distracting lines in the background. Also the eyes aren't sharp enough to absorb the lines leading towards them. That leaves the viewer with no real place to land his eyes besides the hairs on the tips of the ears, which are very lovely but too far up in the picture to be effective as the focal point. The cats stare leads me off the lower left and the balance to that direction is the shadow on the upper right which only emphasizes what I see as a blemish.
Well, the color of the photo does work for me. I really like the tones of the greys and tans and the deeper black stripes. And the lighting is good too, very natural looking. If this isn't sunlight, you have done a great job with white balance and with the direction of the lights, I like that there are no shadows. I find borders to be distracting usually and very easy to do poorly but your boarder here is very nice and I love the way it pick up the trim on the cats ears. Is the fur speckly because you over sharpened in the post processing?
I'm sorry to be so critical Perhaps if I didn't have your photos bookmarked, I wouldn't have such high expectations. I know you can do better than this, I guess that's what I'm trying to say.
Obligatory Disclaimer: Please remember that this is only one person's opinion, mine, and I am not any kind of expert.
I am sooo glad I don't have to review your before and after picture. I just sent my very-large-way-too-friendly pig off to the auction and I am trying not to think about what good sausage she probably turned into.
Message edited by author 2003-02-24 10:53:36. 
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