Glowby
HOOlovesdrumsComment: *** C R I T I Q U E C L U B C O M M E N T ***
I've always loved jellyfish photos, and this is a very decent example of the genre. Speaking in the abstract, it perhaps falls short of the "best" jellyfish shots in the area of luminosity; the really enthralling ones, for me, have a positively ethereal glow, hovering between solidity and ephemeral translucence. As jellyfish shots go, this one is quite "solid", it's a more tangible effect you know?
Still, you work with what you've got; it's certainly not YOUR fault that the critter is what it is and the lighting is what it is.
What I LIKE about this shot is the very nice DOF control. That part's extremely well done. The colors seem perhaps a tad warm to me, but that's an issue of personal taste more than anything else. I have no idea how "accurate" they are, nor does it much matter to me, although it certainly would to, say, a marine biologist.
If the image has a shortcoming, really, IMO it6 is the composition, which doesn't feel quite right to me. The black is overpowering the jellyfish, and the "apex" of the canopy is right in the horizontal center of the image, neither of which I think is optimum. To my eye, if you crop out about half the black on the right, the composition becomes both more square and more dynamic, an odd juxtaposition I admit but there you have it.
In any event, a very nice and visually rewarding shot; it's the kind of image you can look at again and again and feel compelled by. Nice work, and a decent finish for you :-)
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