Driftwood
by Gracious

Comment by RiderGal:
Critique Club

Composition - absolutely beautiful. I love the fact that you do not have the hole in the middle, the offset really adds to the picture.

Exposure - Excellent on the wood that surrounds the entire photo, not so great on whatever is inside the hole, but that is very tough to get the right exposure for both things.

Color - love that you have it in black and white! makes it very dramatic looking, and it would have not been good in color, especially because whatever is in the hole may have drawn away from your subject if it was in a brighter color

Focus - great, no complaints!

Background - what you can see through the hole kind of bothers me.... I can't tell what it is, maybe a lower dof might have blurred this more, or opening the dof more might have helped so you could tell what was inside. It does leave curiosity to the mind though, which is intriguing in a photo.

Fit for challenge - free study, anything goes.

Wowability - this is a really cool photo that catches your eye. You definitely say WOW!

Final comments - great job on this, you got a great placing. It could have been better only by what was in the hole in the wood! Good job and congrats!

Seamstress
by Gracious

Comment by kendall:
Great shot. Sharp and well composed. I give this a high rating

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by lisae:
Interesting... however, I think this photo has a lot of problems. The light is too hard, and flares off the water drops. It would be good to diffuse it and bounce it off something (white card, etc.) to fill the shadows. The colours are a bit muddy. It would be nice to try underexposing it a bit and boosting those colours in post processing. The composition seems a bit flat and chaotic. A closer crop, etc. would be good to try. And lastly, it seems as though the focus is on some of the background rocks, leaving the foreground object a bit blurred.

I think this is a neat idea that could be really cool if you tried it again with improved lighting and played with it in post processing.

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by alanfreed:
An interesting shot overall, but it could have been a notch better if the center rock had been in sharper focus, I believe.

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by joanns:
Wonderous find is right! I can't wait to hear the story behind it. :)

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by autool:
Your focus appears a little out to me. It also looks darker on the righr side, other that that fits the challenge and is interesting shot.

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by HBunch:
A very interesting find indeed! I love the colors and the rock in front is just great! I only wish that the focus had been a bit better on the rock in front and the pinecone. Otherwise, angle and framing/cropping are great, and the lighting is nice as well. Good luck in the challenge.

Wonderous Find
by Gracious

Comment by Swashbuckler:
Nice find! I really like the stone embedded in the stone. The flash glare is a bit strong in places. I kinda question the "extra" elements, the pine cone, the shell piece(?), but not enough to really drop your score. 8 Swash

Seamstress
by Gracious

Comment by gminish:
Very nicely phtographed! Good compostion and excellent detail.

Seamstress
by Gracious

Comment by ambaker:
Great shot the best pictures tell the story. I love this one. There is so much here to see. 10!