Aerial Dance
by gingerninja

Comment:
The colors are absolutely stunning and the scene captured is captivating. The swarm of birds doing their aerial dance must have been really something to see at that moment of time! Shame that the image size restrictions are such that we cannot get lost in more detail by looking at (forgive the pun) the bigger picture. To me, I get drawn in not just from the colors but also from the two swarms of birds roll in and out across the sky just like the motion of the waves lapping at the shoreline. Wonderful photo and beautifully captured!

Inspire
by alecnorman

Comment:
Truly a lovely photograph of this beautiful girl. The B&W tonal ranges are absolutely superb! The lighting is also excellent. And there is just *something* about this young girl that captures and holds my attention. It is akin to that certain something that I see in Vermeer's painting of the Girl With The Peal Earring. Perhaps it is that I see she she is holding up the scarf to the light and perhaps daydreaming as she watches the light play on the folds and 'beads' of the scarf. She has this *look* that makes one stop to wonder what she is doing and what is she thinking. My very first favorite from this challenge...and that is saying something for I am VERY picky. Thank you for sharing this lovely portrait.

June - Father's Day
by toddhead

Comment:
Hello neighbor:-) (Commenting on those above and below me as a matter of practice now. )

What shoehorn? It fits perfectly with invoking the thought of a young child 'following' in his/her father's footsteps. Or at least it captures the idea of how children will play dress-up to act like adults. This is a cute and wonderful image to pair up with Father's Day in June. I do like the stark white backdrop for it makes the boots, daddy's shoes, stand out as one of the main focal points. However, the pale skin hues of the legs of the child tend to get overpowered a tad. Not sure how one would lessen the stark tendencies of the white backdrop washing out the legs other than somehow introducing a greyscale. How that would be achieved I am not quite sure (scratches head). The only other thought is that you could have slightly changed the title to 'In her Daddy's Shoes' and had a bit of the hem of a frilly but colorful dress showing just above the knees. It would introduce a different color and perhaps play down the starkness of the white backdrop enough so that the skin tones are not as overpowered.

May Flowers
by timfythetoo

Comment:
Hello neighbor:-) (Commenting on those above and below me as a matter of practice now. )

Congrats on a lovely picture! The colors are absolutely stunning. Love the golden yellows of the daffodils that play nicely of the downy softness of the child who cradles them close. With her eyes closed and a gentle smile on her lips it invokes the idea of being safe, protected, and loved in a mother's arms even as I get the impression that the flowers are for her mother whom she loves a whole bunch. This is a perfect image that captures the spirit and emotion of Mother's Day in May. The emotion, the lighting, the detail and the color are all spot on.

What?
by ErinKirsten

Comment:
I did see your comment in the scores thread earlier but unfortunately didn't get to comment much while the challenge was going:-)

First off, congratulations on your ribbon! Now off to my critique. The expression is priceless. The tilt of the head, the eyes that look straight at you unabashed and unashamed with any action this curious kitty may have done is what grabs and holds our attention. Love the title for it really captures what the cat is saying:-) Lighting is wonderful for the white on white hues are, for me at least, difficult to capture. The contrasts between light and shadow are perfectly balanced. Details are excellent too...from those lumunious blue eyes to the whiskers to the downy softness we see on the torso. I was going to suggest that a square crop would be better so the even more focus is brought to the cat. But if you did, you would loose the way the cloth falls in gentle folds as the cat plays under the sheets - and it would lessen the playful nature of the scene. So, the composition as it stands is perfectly lighted, focused and composed. Well done.

Full Color Shot of Mr Kitty Kitty
by JulietNN

Comment:
As promised that if I did not happen to comment on yours during voting I would comment after. Beautiful grey cat and with those lovely amber eyes her would have been a stand out beauty for the Gray challenge earlier. Focus is wonderful - I love all the lovely details and textures we see on Mr. Kitty. And I absolutely love the natural 'halo' lighting that beautifully outlines the fur/shape of the head. The composition has strong potential to move out of the slightly above average and into the exceptional category if you correct a few flaws. First off there is some odd reflections off of Mr. Kitty's eyes. It looks like it may be a reflection of the room. Could a slightly higher angle or different angle removed those reflections? The reflections detract and distract attention away from those beautiful amber eyes. Next, having Mr. Kitty on the couch with that a design may have entered an element that competes for attention. The design adds shapes and textures not to mention a similar hue that tends to take some focus off the cat. If we just had to work with the image as is I would crop this to a straight head and front torso shot for two reasons. One it would eliminate much of that completing textured background. Second it would give your cat more of the spotlight by bringing us even closer to your main subject. If you want to keep more of the backdrop in the shot then my only suggestion would to be to change the angle such that you only have the back of the couch as the backdrop rather than back and armrest. That way it would be more of a solid 'wall' rather than something that has dimension of corners that show light and shadow. The only drawback to this course of action is that you may loose that lovely halo lighting which is one strong point of this photo.

(BTW you don't happen to be a fan of the Babylon 5 universe...Mr. Kitty was one characters pet in one of the spinoff shows)

Black is Back
by luv2photo

Comment:
What really captures and holds our attention in this composition is those amber eyes. But as far as the details to the shape of the cat and the cat itself is mostly lost due to the black backdrop not offering enough contrast. A black on black or white on white is very challenging to do and get it such that it is visually appealing. Judging by your title you wanted your cat to appear on a black backdrop...so I have one thought on how to accomplish it such that the composition could move into the exceptional category. Keep the black backdrop BUT put a specific spotlight on the cat. The light would then illuminate ONLY the cat such that you would have some nice sheen to the black fur plus it would show us some wonderful details on the cat's body and it's face. Black is black, but there are many shades of black and by lighting up just the cat with a spotlight we as the viewers would be able to fully appreciate that. 2-14-09 Just remembered another way to make the black cat more distinctive from the black backdrop...if your cat would sit for it that is:-) Placing a small light a foot or two right behind the cat would have the light illuminate the fur and create an outline of the sitting cat like a halo. That 'outlining' will help keep your main subject separate and apart from that black backdrop allowing this feline to really visually pop off the page.

Did Someone Say Play Ball ?
by negative

Comment:
You have some nice lighting, an adorable Yorkie and some nice arrangement of objects BUT the composition needs a little more work for it to become the star photo it could be. Love how the light plays on the coat of the Yorkie showing off some nice sheen. The biggest flaw with this pet portrait is we don't get to see the eyes! The eyes can show us sooooo much emotion plus the viewer makes a stronger connection with the subject if eye contact is established. Animals are never predictable nor do they stay still long enough sometimes....I suspect the possiblity is strong that this doggie was facing the camera but then turned away when the shutter fired:-) Nonetheless that is where patience must step in to try again or at least have something that holds the dog's attention to look forward long enough for the shot. The focus is also an area that needs improvement for this photo to reach it's full potential. It's odd that there are some areas that are in nice focus while other areas are soft (such as the chest area, the mitten, and the ball). I don't know if you had the camera on a tri-pod or not but if you did not having the camera steady on a fixed object helps alot. If you did then perhaps a higher aperature setting (6.0 or above) that increases the deep of field and longer shutter speed will help keep all objects within the shot in a nice sharp focus (that is, if they do not move:-) till the shot is finished being taken). Pairing the right aperture with the correct shutter speed may take a bit of bracketing work - taking multiple pictures with different settings to hit upon the right one. Knowing that the dog might not sit through all that you could just set up the ball and glove there first to run the test shots then when you have hit upon the best settings bring in the Yorkie for the sitting.

Sir Zigsworth IV
by Stagolee

Comment:
Great side profile portrait of Sir Zigsworth IV!! Lighting wonderfully illuminates the fur and you have some nice light in the eye giving a nice twinkle. The focus on the eye is sharp as a tack but the nose and snout seems a tad soft. Perhaps a greater number in aperture, say f8 or higher will increase the depth of field and thus all things would be in sharper focus. Of course you would need to adjust shutter speed to allow the same amount of light to 'come' it to illuminate your subject with the capture. However, if that is due to movement there is very little you can do. The choice of the black backdrop only allows part of the dog to directly contrast with it. The black tones of it fur on the top of his head blend all too well back into the backdrop. That flaw can be easily corrected (if your dog would sit for it that is:-) ) by placing a small light a foot or two right behind the dog. The light will then hit the fur and illuminate the outline of the dog's profile like a halo. That 'outlining' will help keep your main subject separate and apart from that black backdrop and make Sir Zigsworth IV really visually pop off the page.

Obi-Guana-Kenobi
by DaRkYe

Comment:
Great name for this iguana!!!:-) A slightly above average shot but it needs a little work to move it into the above average category. First there is too many elements within the shot that 'overwhelm' your main subject. You want the iguana to be the focus of the attention so don't overwhelm the shot with too many textures, shapes and above number of objects within the shot. Your main subject occupies maybe 20% of the picture - bring us closer to your pet show more of him/her off by having the reptile fill more of the frame (especially the full body of the animal for missing the tail is a lost opportunity to show more of the coloration of this reptile). Not only that bringing us closer to your main subject will showcase the texture on this pet. I do like how you choose the red and green cloth to compliment the green and red stripes of the animal. You could keep it more simple and clean in presentation by just laying the iguana on that nicely textured green cloth such that it would be a primarily green on green composition. Or you could go the complimentry colors route with having the green reptile on the red cloth (the pairing of the red & green colors would be very appealing to the eye) If you went in that direction you would have to make sure that your lighting was absolutely spot on illuminating the iguana perfectly and eliminating any shadows - for that you would have to have lights on either side. If you use flash to fill in the frontal lighting you would have to make sure that your subject is a far enough distance from the back cloth so that it does not throw shadows on the back cloth.