Bone crushingly bad day
by Yomi

Comment:
This reminds me of that new movie coming out, "Pirates of the Caribbean". Nice picture - where'd you find the model? Good subject for BW.

Three Ducks
by DennisF

Comment:
Beautiful picture. The clouds are spectacular, and the three ducks stand out so clear! The light touch of sepia is just right. ~10

Oldtimer
by kiwiness

Comment:
Beautiful picture. I love the little dust specks on the "boina". My favourite this week, by far. ~10

Time for a bigger house?
by kavamama

Comment:
Man, what a place to work and live! Neat!

Less is More
by danwan

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hi, Wanda,

Your first entry! And you went with a flower macro, that's GUTSY! Your kids/husband must love you a lot. In Argentina, where I grew up, we called this flower "Santa Rita". It's one of my favourites, but in Canada it doesn't grow outdoors.

Your entry meets the challenge, although arguably the "red" is actually a "dark pink". On first impression, the photo looks very clear, but it doesn't show enough detail because of the angle at which you placed the flower, and the hard light.

Focus: Very good, in particular around the edges of the flower petals.

Lighting: A bit of a problem in this photo. Even though the light comes from the top left and not from right above, it is a bit harsh (as your commenters below pointed out already). A couple suggestions are to take the picture from a different angle, or maybe later in the day, or to block the direct light (e.g. with a piece of white paper).

Composition: A direct from the top approach can be quite dramatic, but IMO in this case it doesn't do justice to the beauty of this flower. I think your idea to include the leaves is very good. Maybe you could try taking a view from the side of this flower, with leaves right behind it, kind of cradling it, maybe even a cluster of flowers.

The fainter flowers behind the petals are OK, but the one petal to the left is distracting. Same goes for the spots to the right hand side of the picture. Maybe closing in to the flower a bit more to better fill the space would give you a good shot. Something to try :)

Overall: Pretty good, especially for a first attempt at close-ups. Keep going! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pictures.

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

Reflections
by mbardeen

Comment:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Matt,

I remember looking at this picture during the challenge and thinking, "What beautiful windows! I wish the walls (the sides of the building) weren't so much in shadow." Architecture shots are some of my favourites, and you seem to have an eye for them.

The photo meets the challenge without problems.

Focus is OK. Exposure, hard to know, but the sky is very light and the walls quite dark. The detail on the walls gets a bit lost as a consequence. It's hard to get both the bright sky and the walls right in this situation. Like a couple of your commenters suggest, maybe it would have been better to leave out the sky (or have very little sky) and concentrate only on the details of the beautiful building.

The blue of the windows is very beautiful, and I like it how it's not a flat blue, but shows a shadow of the inside of the window frame. The two open windows add character to the picture. It's a pity you couldn't spot edit and get rid of the two little wires peeking over the edge of the side. Like another of your commenters mentions, it is curious that the windows do not reflect any clouds :)

BTW, I very much like your "Wild Bonsai" photo. Keep up the good work!

Ursula (uabresch)
Feel free to email if you have questions, comments, complaints ...

Creative mess
by sselman

Comment:
You call that a mess!?!?!

Guess where my home is... :o)
by kosmikkreeper

Comment:
No problem! I liked the river side better :)

Got Fruit
by thatguy

Comment:
From the Critique Club

Hello Chris,

First Impressions: You did a nice job finding a subject for "Secondary Colors" in its own environment. It's a good idea to keep looking for oportunities to take photos.

Challenge: The secondary colours show best in the orange and green sodas and the purple background for the label on the orange soda. It is sad that the middle soda is not really a secondary (at least on my monitor it shows in tones of red and wine, not purple). I think that lessens the picture's impact.

Composition: The angle from which you took the picture makes it look a bit like an "ad". It's an interesting angle. It might be nice not to have a second row of sodas behind (blank background). I personally like the way you show only part of the bottles to the sides.

Focus/Lighting: Focus and lighting is adequate, but the glare reflecting off the bottles takes away from your picture. The colours of the soda, especially the middle bottle, are a bit too dark. It would be hard to change the lighting in a public space, but you could try to set up a similar scene at home, and play around with lighting.

Overall: Nice composition, meets the challenge, but feels too much like a quick snapshot, not like a polished entry. Keep at it!

Ursula (uabresch)
Questions, comments, complaints ... please contact me.

America's Pass Time
by Warnercable

Comment:
Respectfully, I'm assuming it's baseball you're talking about (America's passtime), and not throwing stuff at the flag :)