Poltergeistby
MagnumphotographyComment by snaffles: Greetings from the Critique Club!
Initial impression: Quite surreal, interesting swirling vortex, great colours, looks like a lot of fun to shoot.
Technical: Love the 'zippers' as Deb (Melethia) calls them. I imagine this is due to your starting in close and slowly rotating out. Intriguing amount of extra blur on the orange/yellow trails at the right - was that section of the lights closer to the point from where you were focused? Composition is somewhat unorthodox, but the swirls help draw you in.
Artistic: The vivid colours really stood you in good stead here, and I find that the light trails look almost more like shed snakeskins than zippers. I might have gone for a slightly tighter crop on the left - I keep seeing that softness where the lower left swirl starts into the pic. Like the long exposure, and knowing it was probably done handheld, shows a certain level of fearlessness. Which is good!
Overall: Glad to see an image that has not been post-processed to death! Having said that, a hit of saturation is often a good thing and may have just given that slight extra pop. I also think pixelpig's suggestion could be an interesting idea to experiment with in the future.
Feel free to PM me with any questions,
Susan
Photographer found comment helpful.
