Abused and Neglected
by JamesKW

Comment:
Thank you for giving these pups food and a voice.

I think the photo is great as is without digging into the technicals from a journalism standpoint.

In digging into the technicals it looks a tad over exposed or contrasty on the whites and could have used a fill flash on the face (that would have gone over well, I'm sure, heh). I'm not sold on the square crop and would have liked to see more of the chain in a horizontal crop.

Again, thank you and I hope you follow up once that bag of food is gone.

On the half shell
by ShutterPug

Comment:
I agree with others said about nice colors. The yellow might be just a bit hot, but it honestly doesn't bother me much. I like the lighting and the composition.

One thing I'm surprised no one has mentioned is the motion blur. Despite all these nice elements, nothing is in focus. In a way I'm thankful, because it's incredibly gross! How do people eat that??

Day-30.jpg
by ZeppKash

Comment:
That's the prettiest toilet paper roll I've seen in a long time. It almost looks like a valley wall where you see the different layers of sediment.

I wonder what it would look like if you let it sit in some food coloring and let it suck up some color. I know when I've dropped my roll in the toilet, it dries with some pretty interesting curves. It could be a Curves challenge entry for you, heh.

The Butcher
by Iraklis

Comment:
Very interesting and well balanced. There's a lot going on, but it doesn't seem cluttered. You've created a nice centralized flow for the viewer. I'm also a sucker for muted colors like these, and there's great contrast balance.

As commentary, that butcher scares the crap out of me, heh.

As the son of a son of a sailor
by firstkiss

Comment:
I love the soft tans of this photo. However, your little sailor's face loses in competition with the sunset. I'm not sure what lighting tools you have available, but some light reflected up at his face would brighten those rosy cheeks and make him the dominate subject. Outside of this challenge a quick dodging of his face in Photoshop gives the same effect.

Lovely photo, none-the-less.

Emergence
by SandyP

Comment:
The soft emerald of the water is so beautiful. I might have cropped out a small bit from the bottom and right side, but the turtle is so damn cute he demands attention. Ta' heck with rule of thirds!

=)

Hair
by Bruce_the_Robert

Comment:
When I was browsing through this challenge I came to your photo, paused for a second, and then fell in love with it. It's absolutely beautiful. I love how the hair nearly fills every corner. The corner it doesn't touch is your ground. Being the darkest part of your photo it gives the eye something to hold on to with all the craziness going on. While the pink cast of the hair seems a bit unnatural, it's melds well with the other colors in the photo.

Overall, there's almost a sense of mystery. You can't clearly see her eye, and that creates a natural intrigue. I find myself wanting to part her hair and touch what is obviously a baby soft rosy cheek. I would feel weird about hanging someone else's kid on my wall, but if this were my kid she'd be on a full sized canvas. I'd hang her in my entrance so everyone could see what a beautiful child I had and what a great photographer I was!

Curious
by SDW

Comment:
When I look at the photo the horses head begs to come out of the photo. It's clearly the main focus and why you chose a close-up shot to begin with. As you and others have mentioned, there's a headless horse in the background, so obviously your framing wasn't ideal. Blurring the background probably did help to deemphasize the distracting background.

I threw your photo in Photoshop to see what I would do to the photo if it were mine. The very first thing I did was add a vignette (I'm on a vignette kick lately). I did it the quick and dirty way by just burning the corners. Next I whipped out the dodge tool. I focused on the head, since that's what needs to stand out. I brightened the stripe down her nose and touched on the sunlight on her eyelids and nostrils. It still seemed a little dark, so I did a couple more passovers of the whole head with the dodge tool. I burnt the eyes to make them blacker and make them stand out.

The Story of my Life
by Alain

Comment:
This truly is a beautiful image. It's hard to believe that it's snow!

As I stared at it I remembered an old cd cover I made years ago. The image is actually clipart that was on some advertising cd with generic images.



Like a few others mentioned, I think part of the appeal is the gentle curve of what appears to be a woman's back. The softness of the edges add mystery and anonymity. I think it's possibly programmed in the human mind to find the curve of a woman's body soothing.

new.york.city.
by AP

Comment:
I've seen hight time cityscapes. I've seen night time bridge shots. I've seen long exposure tail lights. I can't recall ever seeing this shot.

This is a very nice perspective. The bumps on the metal structure compete for attention with the city lights and the traffic, but in this case I think that's a good thing. It's almost like you broke so many "rules", it works! Hell, I can't even tell where the horizon is supposed to be, and I don't care.

You've created a very interesting photo. There's so much to look at.