Winter Waterfront
by NikonJeb

Comment:
I had to look around the results of this photo to try and understand why it placed where it did. It really didn't deserve a 5.3, but there's some great photos that placed above it. There's some not-so-great ones up there too, but they're the typical DPC crowd pleasers to which I say "eh..."

This is an absolutely beautiful scene. If the foreground tree wasn't where it is, I'd have no qualms with the composition, but as it is, I want to push it out of the way.

Your processing does seem a bit rough. You say there was "minimal doinking," but it looks over sharpened. I love the colors though. One thing I noticed was a pale pink in the background along the water line. If you could bring that out a touch, I think it would add greatly to the whole image.

Overall this is a great winter image that is very telling of the area you live. There is a lot of great elements. If I had voted I would have given it no less than a 7. Knock out the tree and give me some pink and it would have been a 9.

Poetry
by zxaar

Comment:
I remember seeing this during the challenge and thinking to myself "wow.. that's not going to do well." I almost instantly appreciated the beauty of the photo though. It is very Impressionistic.

You're photo quite clearly belongs on a wall. It is very much a painting. Unfortunately, the voters on DPC don't usually appreciate photos that aren't perfectly crisp with a clear subject and colors they expect to see.

In your own words you were "trying something different." In looking at other photos in your profile, I can tell you that you don't need my advice on how to take a photo. I think this photo was just an experiment that isn't appreciated by the masses in this venue. If it were a painting on a wall in a museum the opinions would be vastly different. Keep experimenting. You're a great photographer!

Willie The Pimp (Harlem, 2008)
by pawdrix

Comment:
This one really is a mystery. I'm sure by now you know your candids are under appreciated, but quality wise it's no lesser quality than your higher scoring ones. I don't think that elbow in the shot should have knocked you so low, so I wonder if it's the actual subject that people didn't like.

I remember seeing this during the voting and asking myself "how does he know he's a pimp?" At the time I didn't know it was your photo, although I should have since it screams Pawdrix. Since I didn't know it was you I thought the photographer was just stereotyping this guy and had I voted, it may have had an effect on the score. To most of the world pimps are just something we see in the movies.

If this photo were on a themed website that was documenting New York streets it would seem less out of place. In the DPC environment it seems like a photo of a snappy dresser being labeled as a pimp.

With that all said it's a very interesting photo. People always seem so relaxed and natural in your photos. These are definitely not people you'd see walking down Oregon streets, heh.

A different kind of street
by Kelli

Comment:
That looks like such a fun parade! The costumes are fantastic. You captured the vivid colors well. Those bright colors are so easily over exposed.

It looks like you were in a shaded area, so my suggestion for next time might be to bump up your ISO a bit so that you can use a faster shutter speed. Paraders do a lot of waving and their costumes generally have a lot of moving pieces. I think that movement blur really had a negative impact on the shot.

Composition wise, it's a candid so several rules are often forgivable, but there's still the basics to keep in mind to make the image powerful. If you look at your rule of thirds you have the tail end of a car and the subject's wave, your subject, and then the next row of paraders. The tail end of the car cheapens the shot. I know, I know.. cars are big part of parades, but I find it distracting for this shot. It takes away from the parader's wave, which should be the main action of the shot.

I think your final score may have been lower than if you had entered this into more of a themed challenge. Freestudies are tough.

thing of beauty, joy forever
by zxaar

Comment:
This is absolutely beautiful. Your exposure is dead on.

"Unfortunately this shot is very cliche and nothing special. But it is Taj so it is in." You're insane! You've captured the sheer power and delicacy of an amazing piece of architecture. It's not easy to do what you've done here. Don't short sell yourself.

Spying on Crows
by Rebecca

Comment:
This would make a good desktop wallpaper, heh. Very cute!

The Lilly
by Rasai

Comment:
I really like your lighting, both in the foreground and background. You've captured the colors and softness of the lily nicely. I do notice quite a bit of grain in your background. Nothing a run through Neat Image or similar wouldn't fix.

One thing I struggled with shooting Calla Lilies was composition. It's like photographing a person. If you crop at a joint it looks awkward. Something about your composition here makes it feel like it was clipped at a joint. I think anything without the stem looks unnatural. I took a ton of shots and what I ended up posting still didn't seem right, heh.

I read through a couple of the other comments, and I have to agree with there being too much dead space. I cropped a big chunk of it out in Photoshop, and can't say I missed what was cropped out. The minimalism type feel and contrast was still there.

Silenced
by lovethelight

Comment:
Why am I sucker for this stuff?? This is a very powerful image. I said "wow" right off the bat. I love the flower exploding from her mouth.

Stuctures in Mist
by Sanjuro

Comment:
The textures and color of this photo just screams H.R. Giger to me. I don't know if "creepy" was the look you were going for, but it is definitely creepy. I love it, heh.

Fairy Falls (not HDR)
by ben4345

Comment:
Very, very pretty. It almost has a dark, Lord of the Rings feel. I think I would have liked to see a bit more saturation in the greens and reds. It's still very beautiful though.

It's amazing that you captured the bridge with no people on it. Every time I've been to Multnomah Falls, it's been packed. Especially with all the rain we've been getting and the obvious size of the falls this year. Maybe all the tourists were too wussy for all the rain... or maybe you just cloned them out, heh.