Delicate
by Adz

Comment:
I'm not voting in this challenge so I'm not passing along a score, but this photo has missed the mark when it comes to Edward Weston. I can't recall ever seeing a Weston image that was done with a shallow depth of field. That was definitely one of the hallmarks of his style... deep depth of field...

Addendum per request:

In the spirit of the Edward Weston challenge, I would have probably scored this photo a 3 or maybe a 4. In my humble opinion, as I stated earlier, this photograph missed the mark quite a bit when considering the style of Weston. While it's mainly because of the shallow depth of field, it goes a bit beyond that. I don't believe that Weston would have chosen this subject material either. (Once again, this is all MY personal opinion of what Weston might do based only on my experience with his images.) Weston worked a good bit with still life situations, but he seemed to always work with the subject in its entirety rather than taking an abstract view of the subject. His subject choices outside the realm of landscapes always seemed to focus on the beauty of interacting shapes and forms which created appealing harmonies within the composition. Your image here has some interesting shapes and forms but they don't seem to interact in any specific or special way.

In a free study, I might have given this photo a 5 or possibly a 6 depending on how I felt on that particular day :) I believe that your execution of this image was exactly what you wanted it to be, so you accomplished that part. As for appealing to me, the viewer, I'm not finding a personal connection or appeal in the subject or composition. If I was judging the photo on technical qualities alone, I would score it higher, but in my opinion, technicals are just a small part of photographic art. The subject choice and the photographer's approach to that subject is 85-90% of the goal. What this means from me is that there are a lot of photographs out there that are technically poor in some people's eyes that strike me as fantastic images. If the subject and theme of the image overwhelm me, the technicals don't seem to matter so much. When a photographer manages to captivate me with the subject and approach AND managed to be right on target in the realm of technical achievement, it's a sure winner in my book :)

Graceful Mission
by SandyP

Comment:
This is an awesome photo. It makes me jealous, not only because it's a great photo that isn't mine, but because I don't have easy access to such beautiful birds :) Nice work...

Quackers
by briansmith246

Comment:
Nice capture of the mallard in flight here... The water spray and the slight motion on the wings creates a good sense of action in this photograph. You also managed to be in the right position to catch this duck in excellent sunlight which helped out tremendously for the color.

As for the composition, I believe this might have been a great image for a square crop rather than vertical. Since the action is moving left to right, the unused space at the bottom of the frame becomes slightly irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. A square crop with the duck in the center of the frame would work well here because the duck itself would create opposing diagonals with the body and wings in their positions of flight. Just some food for thought :)

Ascension
by hihosilver

Comment:
This photo has a lovely texture and feel. The contrast is superb and the tack sharp focus on the bird's head really sets this image off nicely. This photo does convey a lot of motion but I think it would be even stronger in terms of this challenge if the entire bird was included in the frame. At any rate, its a beautiful piece of work :)

Osprey
by weheh

Comment:
This is a fantastic photo. It's unfortunate that it didn't score better. The warmth of the light here is completely awesome.

Every Picture Tells a Story
by SandyP

Comment:
This is an excellent character portrait for sure :) I love photographing people much in the way you have done here, and early in my decision to pursue that avenue, I had to deal with the issue of photographer 'fear' of people. It seems to me that most photographers I know are too afraid or shy to speak with a stranger and simply ask them if you may make a few photos. Most seem to want to take that candid stealth route. For the last several years, I have been working on a "1000 Faces" series of photographs. I'm a long way from finishing it, but each person in the series is someone I have interacted with in one way or another. Some are candid and some are impromptu portraits on location. But each of them are of a person who I have had some amount of verbal dialogue with... there are even a few celebrities. It really is amazing how you can briefly get to know someone and maybe even learn something by simply talking to them. I most often find my subject and start a conversation before I ask for the photographs and I'm rarely turned down.

This is a worthy pursuit :)

Wingspan
by FocusPoint

Comment:
This is a really fantastic capture. It's not so easy to get birds in flight from a perspective above the bird. Your photo captures that very well. I really love the way the bird stands out against the simple background also. The slight bits of motion blur on the wingtips also show a good sense of motion to add to the overall theme of this shot... nice work :)

A Joyful Child
by onlyforyou22

Comment:
This is a cute photo. It even has a bird in flight. However, that bird in flight is not the focal point of the image and it probably should be where birds in flight is the theme of the challenge.

chased the shouting wind along
by vawendy

Comment:
This is really an excellent image. The composition is fantastic and that's nicely highlighted by the bird looking in your direction for the shot. It also makes a nice black and white, and would be even stronger if the background was a bit darker to really set the bird off against it. This photo is one of my top ten in this challenge... good luck :)

Prepare for landing
by howards

Comment:
This is a fantastic capture. I can't really imagine having caught this at any better peak of action. The spread of the wings and the anticipated landing on the block is just about perfect in every way. Excellent job with the focus and timing... You might also want to explore some possibilities with this image in black and white. This is one of my top 4 photos in this challenge and I hope to see it somewhere near the top of the heap at the end of the week... great work!