Lighter Than Light
by JH

Comment:
Now that I am not obsessing over several challenge entries I wanted to stop by and leave a comment on this one that you posted in the thread titled "Why oh WHY can't it be easy?". As quite a few pointed out that the bg is too gray rather than the bright white I think you were going for. I like the idea but a bright white background and sharper detail on the light bulb would help this compositional idea tremendously. You might want to try building a simple & easy Super Simple Light Tent. Playing around with a smaller aperature (6.3 or higher) and slower shutter speed (1/10 to 1/60)will net you sharper details in your main subject and quite possibly get a brighter white depending on what background you use & lighting you use (be careful of the tungsten light bulbs for they can give a yellowish cast to the image). Another thing that I found instrumental is adjusting the WB on your camera. For a recent shoot I changed the White Balance from Auto to Custom and found that it got rid of the awful yellow tinge or flat tinge in the photo.

Evening Chores
by jasonlprice

Comment:
I sat this one out but went browsing (no voting) through the galleries during voting and saw your entry, fell in love with it, and fav'ed it. I am coming back now that I have some time to breath to tell you what I loved. You captured the 'feel' and compositional elements that I have seen in so many of the impressionism paintings that I teach to the children. I absolutely love that you chose an 'everyday activity' of times gone and had your daughter dress in old style clothes to add to a feel of a time in the 1800's or early 19th century. While the brush strokes were added later it REALLY adds to the impressionistic painting style BUT what really hits the ball out of the park is that you paid attention to the compositional elements, lighting, the play of light on the composition's elements and theme. For me, your photo painting really captured the moment and brought to mind that of Pierre-Auguste Renoir's In the Meadow, The Laundress, and Luncheon of the Boating Party Beautifullly done and captured. Congradulations on the blue!!!!

North of Eden
by Neil

Comment:
I sat this one out but went browsing (no voting) through the galleries during voting and missed seeing this beauty. While I don't get the strong impresssion of 'brush strokes' I think you nailed the painting impressionism style of compositional shapes, bright colors, and play of light on main elements. Love that soft focus or glow that causes these flowers to really reach out and grab the viewer's attention - and it was accomplished by simple hairspray on the camera filter! (I am going to have to try that sometime). This is a lovely piece.

stillife3.jpg
by MAK

Comment:
I really like the compositional elements of this still life study. It has many interesting shapes, colors and textures throughout the composition for the eye to study. While it doesn't have the bang-up impact of your impressionism challenge entry it still is a impressive capture that I think would be better if you did away with the PS filters (that is if you did add them to give this a painterly effect). This would *really* shine more if you just let the straight from the camera with no 'artist brush' applied come through - I could see both of these Impressionistic Photos hanging in a gallery somewhere.

Still Life with Peaches
by MAK

Comment:
Excellent job on composition of this still life for the lighting and elements really carry it off as an oil painting. Your friend's eye really helped you nail it in this photo. Love the lighting, the colors, shapes and textures one sees in this still life photo study.

Morning conversations
by Melethia

Comment:
Love the warm golds and oranges in this photograph. It really captures the feel and mood of an early morning with that the nice warm glow. The reeds bend to a gentle breeze as the sun casts is warm golden orange rays upon the water. Minimilistic in the composition but beautifully and elegantly captured. Well done. My only critique is that I think it would be better to have an either plain white, black or thin line white with predominant black border to compliment the shot. The yellow-orange one here I think detracts some attention away from those lovely golds & orange tones within your picture.

Blowing in the wind
by unneva

Comment:
Love the composition here with the three horses grazing in the open field. Lighting is beautiful particularly on the foreground horse where we can see the lovely shine on the horse's mane blowing in the wind. Love the colors and tones. My only critique is that I wish that there was more lighting to illuminate the horse on the left so that we can see more of the features of the head/face. That horse is too much in shadow and if it was illuminated better (difficult because with a flash fill you risk loosing those wonderful highlights and glow on the foreground horse) we would get to see more of these beautiful creatures facial features in the composition as a whole (as it is the back horse is the only one we partially see because the forground horse's face is lost to his/her grazing)

White Squirrel
by JuliBoc

Comment:
Wow, what a beauty this is! On a recent trip to NC I learned about the white squirrels thought to be only located in/surrounding the town of Brevard (Brevard County). Beautiful creatures - I was a tad disappointed in not spotting one. You are very lucky to have seen one as well as wonderfully capture this beauty on 'film'. Side note I have to ask: does this mean one can see them down here in S. Florida?!?!?!

Message edited by author 2007-09-06 09:08:42.

take the plunge
by gliphix

Comment:
I love the expressions and the action going on here in this underwater shot. Shooting underwater has got to have many challenges to overcome to get a good picture I would think. You captured the joyful mood and emotion hands down. But, as much as I like the action, the sharp details of the models, their facial expressions and body pose I still think there is room to improve this image. First, the shadows cast at the bottom of the pool distract from the models I would have liked to see them free floating in the watery space for twofold reasons. Having them hang in space give the impression of weightlessness and fluid motion as they take the plunge. Second, there would be no distracting shadow to take attention away from the action going on or the models. Next the contrast seems a bit flat mayhap that is from the water reflections, the exposure or both. Bumping up the contrast levels or highlight/shadows would make this pop visually a bit more. I have been debating whether to suggest if this would look better in B&W as opposed to color. The advantage of the B&W is that if the conversion is done right is that the tones, textures and main subjects would visually pop off from their watery green-blue environment/background. The disadvantage is that it might not be readily recognizable as an underwater scene. Still a very good action and emotive scene - bumping up to a 7.

An invaluable drop of time
by zxaar

Comment:
I think the lighting in this photograph is excellent for it acts as a soft spotlight that directs our attention immediately to the child's closed eye & the delicate tear that is running down the face. It immediately moves the viewer to compassion - we want to soothe away the hurt or fear that this child may have; we want to reach out and wipe away that tear. You did an excellent job of establishing an emotional connection with your viewers! Beautifully captured and beautifully presented.