Village Council meeting room, in the early morning sun.
by jjbeguin

Comment:
My goodness. This photo should have won first place. Why it didn't is just beyond me. I really wish I would see the opportunities to take pictures like this one. Oh well.

Village Council meeting room, in the early morning sun.
by jjbeguin

Comment:
This a beautiful picture! What can I say ... the patterns, the shadows, the golden colour on the straw seats, the square format, everything is beautiful. 10 from me.

Acrylics and oils
by UberFish

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Neil,

Your picture meets the challenge. I always marvel at all the different things that people think of for the different challenges! I must say that your idea is quite interesting as an idea. Unfortunately, outside of DPChallenge this photo would not "ring a bell" with many people. IMHO even here at DPC it probably is not a photo that will grab many viewer's attention for more than a moment.

I like the colour and the "plastic" look of the letters. IMO, the background (or foreground) is quite interesting, but it might work better if it were sharper, the colours were brighter, and there was a bit more contrast.

Overall, I think this is a good idea and a "gutsy" entry to the challenge. BTW, I love your picture for "From Above" ("Haft Empty or Haft Full"). Take care,

Ursula (uabresch)
Comments, complaints, questions ... feel free to contact me.

Fizzz
by Allen

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Corey,

Your picture, "Fizzz", meets the challenge.

It looks like you took the picture in low light, because of the graininess of the purplish background. Maybe you could work on better lighting. It also helps to use a tripod or some other way to steady the camera to get better focus. You also can use post-processing to "fix" a grainy picture somewhat (e.g. NeatImage), although you have to go careful to not overuse it as you end up with bad results.

As far as composition, it might have been better to just photograph the two bottles (no caps, no ruler, no strap). A slightly different angle (from above but a bit to the side) might also have worked better. "From above" can be very dramatic, but sometimes it's not the best choice to go straight from above.

Hope this helps a bit ... take care,

Ursula (uabresch)
Comments, questions, complaints ... feel free to contact me.

JL AUDIO Bumps
by DigitalGravy

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Jacob,

You picture is a good idea for sound. It meets the challenge well.

Focus is right for what you wanted to convey, the speaker vibrating as the sound goes through it. Light also is fine, the white of the brand name is very nice, blacks are fine. IMO, choice of BW is good. The border is beautiful, very well done.

I agree with your commenters below that (1) you probably should have cropped differently, and (if possible) included some more of the speaker for context and contrast to the motion blur area; (2) the motion blur is subtle, so much so that it's easily missed or confused with simple blur.

Overall, this is a good entry to "Sound", but unfortunately it's not a picture that will grab the viewer. OK, keep going (taking pictures!).

Ursula (uabresch)
Comments, complaints, questions ... feel free to contact me.

jazzhands.jpg
by Pedro

Comment:
Hey, did you have to move some furniture to take this pict? It's very nice! I love it that you even have the same kind of shoes on.

LIFE
by swaroskji

Comment:
My favourite this challenge! It's a lovely picture, and very appropriate for LIFE magazine (is it still around? I went looking for it and couldn't find it.) ~My only 10

must practise more?
by hughletheren

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Hugh,

I must say, you went to a lot of trouble to get your picture for this challenge! Box cutters, sticky tape, ladders, lights ... good thing you weren't trying to board a plane.

Our oldest son plays the jazz trumpet. He used to practice endlessly when he still lived with us, and I oftentimes would feel like doing what the person is doing in your cutout. So, during the voting your picture brought back memories of lots of sound - I guess what I'm saying is that IMO your picture fit the challenge quite nicely.

About the picture itself, I love the colours. The gold of the trumpet is beautiful, as is the black background and the white behind the silhouette. I like the golden glow around the head, and you couldn't have desaturated because then you would have lost the trumped colour also. The trumpet is nicely in focus without being oversharpened. I find the glare and in particular the reflections from stuff in the garage a bit distracting (since you were working so hard, you could have covered EVERYTHING in your garage - just joking :). I would have liked to see the whole trumpet (the mouthpiece is cut off).

Two suggestions with which to play around:

1) Could you have made the cutout larger, so that a little portion of it would be covered by the trumped (overlap)? In my head that looks good, but I don't know how it would work out.

2) I think I would prefer that the trumped were not quite on a straight diagonal, bottom left to top right (again I'm not sure, just something I'm trying to see).

Hope this helps a little. Take care,

Ursula (uabresch)
Comments, complaints, questions ... feel free to contact me.

It's my home too.. let me in..
by Refracted

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Andre,

IMO, this was the best pet picture in the Home Sweet Home challenge. To me personally pets do not speak of home, but this picture does - the cat looking through the door-window, trying to get in, that's home.

The composition and the choice of BW are excellent. I love how you framed the picture on two sides with the doorframe. Also, the way you see only part of the cat's face, and only one ear, is beautiful. The cat's eyes are very good. IMO, the photo does not need a mat or frame, it stands quite nicely on its own.

Focus is excellent. The blurred background looks totally appropriate here. The soft lighting works well here. There's only one place where I can see black, the pupils of the cat's eyes. The white fur sets off the eyes beautifully. The rest is various shades of grey.

I've been looking at your edited picture, and I think you're right - it probably would make a better print. You did a good job of editing. But I do not find the spots on the original unattractive - they tell me it was a rainy day, the edited photo is more "bland" in a way.

Anyway. I don't really have a suggestion for improvement, so I guess I'll say - "Keep up the good work". Take care,

Ursula (uabresch)
Questions, comments, complaints ... feel free to contact me.

Home and view
by Mona

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Mona,

First impressions: Your entry to "Home Sweet Home" is very appropiate to the theme; when I look at it, I can think of home, not mine, but someone's home.

Composition: The ship in the background reinforces the idea of home (coming home), as does the pink flower in the right window and the lace courtains (being home); even the satellite dish :) speaks of home (things we do at home). I very much like that you show only the top part of the house. The simple grey/black frame is appropiate to the photo.

Focus: Focus is fine.

Light: OK, the colours of the house, in particular the chimney bricks and roof tiles, are beautiful, well saturated. The background, by contrast, is a bit washed out, especially the blues, (it must have been a hazy day?), and that hurts your picture. I don't know what post-processing software you have, but you probably could improve the image using one of the various tools available for contrast or colour improvement.

I hope this helps. I very much like the glowing light in your "Cloud-scape" picture - it's beautiful! Take care,

Ursula (uabresch)
Comments, questions, complaints ... feel free to contact me.