Motioned Gears
by hdogg4u

Comment:
Nice framing and effect, but lacking in the critical sharpness this sort of image seems to demand.

Sydney's Sled
by bbower1956

Comment:
This appeals in a low-key way. I wish it were sharper.

Happy 2005! Peace, Love, Health and Ribbon!
by Luxvich

Comment:
This is techincally well-done, but I'm not sure how the stopped motion helps the mechanical theme, besides, we don't use corkscrews on champagne... For these reasons, I rank it somewhat lower than I'd otherwise do.

Cat Trax
by bryanbrazil

Comment:
Lovely, massive feel to this, marred by an awkward framing of the key element. we need to see, at least, all of the rear rotor, and arguable some of the track above it.

Simple Machines
by troylox

Comment:
Conceptually pleasing. It would rank higher if it had the critical sharpness it's just begging for, and if the lighting were a little softer. I'd also question the very warm chromatics here. I wonder how it would work if the drivers were cool-ble-steel looking and the rest a more desaturated sepiaesque tone?

Retired
by scrum8

Comment:
extraordinary positive/negative dialogue; first the BG is UP, then the BG is DOWN, it cycles visually. I wish there were better separation between the teeth and the drak BG stripe. A real sleeper of an image.

Prybar
by GeneralE

Comment:
I admire this for the very fundamental take on what it means to be mechanical; a prybar is the original machine, aka "lever". The foreground leaf reall distracts, and I wish the image were more dynamic.

"Hidden Face"
by tfarrell23

Comment:
I really don't see a face here, except maybe a squinting one on the big rock, not really "trhere" for me...

Ent of Fangorn
by scrum8

Comment:
It's a nice face, but the background is way too confusing and cluttered to show the face to best advanhtage.

Lighting The Way
by atsxus

Comment:
***CRITIQUE CLUB RESPONSE***

Compositionally, there's nothing much to quibble with here; 1/2 degree counterclockwise rotation would square up the verticals nicely.
Likewise, the decorations themselves seem "photographable" for sure.

Your problems are technical. "Lights at night" are hard to do well. If you cruise the results of this challenge, you'll see that most of the similar entrants ran into the same problem you did: amorphous black surround with dots of lights popping out. What's the best way around it? Shoot at twilight, in early evening, get some detail in the sky so it's not totally black. A few of the night-light entrants managed this very well.

There's evidently at least one tree, left-center in front of the house. If this tree were separated from a slightly less-dark sky, you'd have a vastly improved image.

At the photoshop level, this might benefit from some fiddling withhue/saturation sliders as well, to get some more chromatic pop. Give it a try...

Robt.