Brimham-tree-and-anvil.jpg
by Falc

Comment:
Very beautiful! The FP books are paying off.

Mother's Love
by cloudsme

Comment:
From the Critique Club:

Composition: I think the composition is excellent, but I also think that it is the kind of composition that is going to get a lot of mixed reactions. One of the mother's eyes is "cut off", and that is going to bother a lot of people. The only thing visible of the child is the hair, and that, again, is going to bother a lot of people. But for your presentation, the composition is excellent.

Technical: Again, very good work. The only addition that might help is a catchlight in the eye.

Post-processing: Beautiful! I see no problems with it.

Challenge: It meets the challenge topic well, actually right on. You got quite a good score for it, although probably not as high as you wished. I think what hurt is the mixed reactions the photo produces - too many people hung up on the close crop.

Hope this helps.

If you have any questions/comments, feel free to contact me. Take care,

Ursula

Flow
by Rikki

Comment:
I've been coming back to this image a couple times, and I can't quite make up my mind about it. It certainly gets the attention, and it is so sharp all over, and the reds are beautiful. It looks like a -dax in focus and not quite. I am not sure what to think about it. It is very different from my own conception of what an interpretation of "flow" would be - to my eyes it's beautiful, very beautiful, but static, very "floaty" rather than "flowy". Also, for some unknown reason, I keep wanting to look at the picture either sideways or upside-down (like it better sideways, from the right). Whoever you are, I really hope you don't mind this rambling comment.

Mother Swan Protecting Her Young
by LVE

Comment:
From the CC:

First impression: where are the babies?

On second looking: three things jump out:
(1) beautiful feathers!
(2) water looks sort of murky;
(3) the border is distracting.

Composition: Quite nice overall. Maybe you could consider giving the mother swan a bit more "breathing room" - the crop is not tight enough for it to be a closeup, yet you are cutting off part of her foot and boxing her in very close. The colour scheme on the swan is beautiful. I would personally like to see the picture without a border in this case.

Technical: Your shallow DOF worked well here - the focus is on the swan, feathers, beak, eye, and the reflections are blurred. You mention clouds, yet their reflections are barely visible. The reflected vegetation looks nice. The swan's head looks to be slightly too bright (maybe increasing the shutter speed just a tad?). The water looks a bit muddy, and I wonder if a slightly different angle might help, hard to tell. The detail on the feathers is very nice.

Challenge: Without the title there would be little connection to the challenge topic. The title suggests that there were baby swans around, it would have been nice to include at least one, so that the viewer could make the connection to both the title and challenge topic. I think you would have scored higher if there were some babies in the picture.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to contact me.

Ursula

After the rain
by whiteroom

Comment:
And up pops this one .... WOW! I can smell the clean fresh air after a shower. Where is this? A real winner.

Spoonful
by deapee

Comment:
Beautiful work!

Rodeo Clown in Training
by Artyste

Comment:
Now, who might this be? Hmmmm... Those are some beautiful blue eyes!

Color from Down Under
by Meera

Comment:
Good closeup, the centered composition works here. It looks a tad "soft" on my screen.

flowing red dress
by snackwells

Comment:
Really beautiful! Grey and pink/reds always look so good together. Love the butterfly on her hair.

A Rainbow and Mistletoe
by Faye Pekas

Comment:
A subtle burst - very nice!