Happy Christmas to you all!
by SaraR

Comment:
Critique Club Critique
by karmat

My initial response is that this is a very well focused, sharp picture, but that it feels just a touch "off" for my for some reason.

Compositionally, I usually like the awkward not quite in/not quite out framing like this. In this picture, though, it is a bit too awkward and seems out of balance. Maybe if it were in the left side of the frame it would seem more balanced. maybe. Your background is very nice and clean, so I'm wondering if this wouldn't be a good shot to have a lot more negative space in and just have the glass in one of the lower corners. (I'm gonna contradict myself in just a minute).

Technically, The focus is great. The bottom of the glass is blurred, and that is okay, because it forces the viewer to look at the pattern on the glass. The pattern itself is "cut" by the beverage, so I'm wondering if it would be better to have an empty glass, or fill it up to above the pattern.

About the challenge. This was a good entry for pattern, I think. It is not contrived, as many entries can be, but is an existing pattern that you were able to photograph, and photograph well. It definitely meets the challenge, in that regards. However (and this contradicts my earlier suggestion), I'm thinking seeing more of the pattern would be more effective. If you could play around with different compositions, it may have changed some.

Overall, a very nice shot. I think if more of the pattern could have been seen, it *might* have scored higher. If this were an "elegance" or "glassware" challenge, this would have been at the top of the list, I think.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions.
karmat

First Patient of the Day
by DrAchoo

Comment:
no 1s, 2s, or 3s. maybe you should lose bets to Judi more often. hahahahahah.

good shot. nice legs. . .

Window Shopping with Pig
by jfwolpert

Comment:
The pig did it for me. Made me laugh. Great capture of a moment in time!

Bond's Winnings
by jfwolpert

Comment:
Okay, this sounds silly, but I think arranging the colors differently would have helped. Maybe the black at the bottom, to "anchor" it, then the red/blue, then the white, then the last one. also, the crop is interesting, but seems a bit haphazard to me. What would it have looked like to have the chips diagonally through the whole frame?

I do like the background/surface. It makes it look like the chips are suspended in the air.

Cirque de Stickee Notes
by aimeethetoo

Comment:
You are on a roll!! Great work. the colored stickies really add to this. Much better than if you had used all yellow ones!

Rag Trade
by hanae

Comment:
I like the perspective that you have shot this from. It may have also been interesting to crop it a lot tighter so that just the rolls of cloth were showing.

wired
by rinac

Comment:
I like the dramatic/graphic coloring on this one. It's nice to see a photographer taking advantage of the wires instead of havign to clone them out.

My only suggestion would be to rotate it (either in shooting or pp) so that the tower is in the corner, straddling, so to speak, the bottom and left sides. Then, it would also be on a diagonal, as well as the wires.

Of course, I'm kinda tilted as well.

great work!

In Loving Memory
by talj

Comment:
Girlfriend, you have the monopoly on shots that you *could* critique technically, but that you won't because the emotive factor is so strong it overrides everything else.

to me, the coloring and pp you have chosen gives it that dreamy, surreal feeling that hangs around when we've lost someone we love. That feeling that we know it has happened, yet we still pick up the phone and start to call them, or expect to see them come around the corner at any time.

Also, whether intentional or not, the road is very powerful in this image. While the one we love is "behind" and is not moving, the road leads up and out of the frame, which is exactly what we have to do. Even though we ahve lost something so dear and important, the world keeps turning, and in our grief, we have to keep moving forward.

I'm hoping you are doing much, much better and on the road to recovery from the little holiday in the hospital (holiday, yea, right), and I hope that each new day helps you to become stronger and more hopeful on your road through life.

Concentration
by msdoubletrouble

Comment:
Can't say a lot about this one that hasn't been said. A sharp focus would have helped. :)

I like the crop. I think it could have been even tighter, possibly, and lost some of the space at the bottom and far right. Then, though, you would have lost the whiskers.

Awesome looking cat!

Dirt: The Long Road Home
by msdoubletrouble

Comment:
I am no help when it comes to giving punch in post processing, but maybe i can help compositionally. You, did, however, meet the challenge really well. That is definitely dirt~

I think if you could have stood a few feet more to your left so that the road was entering in the lower corner instead of mid frame, it would have given the viewer a place to "start." (or even in the road if there was no traffic) As it is, the dirt pile in front becomes the first place the viewer's eyes rest, and as it is not terribly interesting, there isn't a huge degree of motivation to keep looking. However, here is where the overcast helped you I think. Because the sky is brighter than the rest, the eyes are drawn upwards, and then find the road and follow it.

That road is just begging for a dirt bike or kid on a bicycle to stir up some big old dust clouds. You know like when you ride really fast and lock the brakes and turn in a circle.