Just a Breezeby
ladyComment: FWIW (being no stellar scorer on dpc).
First, look at your scores - the largest category is your 6's at 51. So, out of 147 votes, roughly 1/3 felt this was a 6 - that's actually very good.
Now, look at your 1's, 2's, 9's, and 10's - there is a great imbalance here - no votes at 9 or 10, and 3 in the 1's & 2's - you didn't hit a home run with anyone. But now look at your 7 & 8's - 16 of them or over 10% of the votes.
All that to say - your entry connected very well with a fairly large number of voters - not a home run, but not a barker either.
For the photo itself:
Symmetry is not always a goal, but if you're not going to be symmetrical, have a reason for it. In your shot, the examples I'd give are: Top leftmost candle has entire height visible, and is bisected horizontally at the wick. In contrast, the bottom right two candles are cropped off at the bottom, and the rightmost one is all there from side to side. Try a crop that would take an equivalent amount off of the candles at either side of the image, as well as preserve the entire candle vertically (for example, on the left side - just to the right of the leftmost candle, and on the right side just to the right of the flame on the 3rd candle from the right. Crop down on the top to have about as much room above your new leftmost candle as below your new rightmost candle.
Generally, if you crop part of an object off, part of it should be cropped off on all sides and failing that on opposite sides. Unless you're creating a feel of motion by having extra space for an object to "move into", an approximately equal amount of space on all sides is preferable.
I love the diagonal line running across the shot that you have created with the candles. It is very strong. The flip side of that is you are left with roughly 1/2 or more of your picture being plain black. Also, you might want to consider mirror image, causing the line to go from lower left to upper right (at least for Western viewers, a more familiar direction of visual tracking).
I don't know what to say about the direction of the wind - I do like that it leads your eye along the diagonal line from L to R. However, this causes a bit of discomfort / feeling something is "not quite right" with the reflections of the flames. Personally, I like the reflections (and especially the water ripples in them).
Your depth of field and focus is quite nice in this.
Emotive response - to me this almost has a church-like feel to it. It demonstrates the conflict of darkness and light (even more emphasized by the guttering flames). The downward line is a bit discouraging, like light is in a bit of a retreat. The guttering flames give a sense of action or motion.
FWIW - One lesson dpc has taught me is that everything has to be perfect to make a great image - little things can detract a LOT.
Overall - This is a very nice image that, while it might benefit from some minor tweaking, connects well with the viewer. Not sure most folks could look at this and not have an emotional connection to it of some kind.
Photographer found comment helpful.
