Sailing to Byzantium
by clickodak

Comment by posthumous:
Ah some actual Byzantium in the house.

Sailing to Byzantium
by clickodak

Comment by tnun:
it is a lovely icon. I do wonder what possible lingam baby or adolescent Jesus holds in his left hand, and at the Buddhic thumb and finger in his right.

Hidden face
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Initial impression...a hidden face...ok, see what looks like an ear on the left middle third roughly where an ear would be, and the hint of a closed eye and possibly a lip below. I can see the suggestion of an oval face.

However, overall this image almost meets the challenge descrip too well, it is a very tough challenge, which is why I didn't enter :-). On the one hand you want the shot to be a macro and an abstract, but if it's overly abstract - as voters seem to have found it - you get low scores.

I like the stained glass effect but a clearer image - if the face had been in profile, say - would have helped immensely.

Hope this critique has been of help, feel free to PM me.

Susan

The cowboy and his horse
by clickodak

Comment by tanguera:
Sure does look like a horse and rider in the shadow!

The cowboy and his horse
by clickodak

Comment by MadMan2k:
Interesting part of the horse to include as the only part of the shadow's source.

...Going back I realize it's a dog, that's worth a point bump up :)

Sailing to Byzantium
by clickodak

Comment by Pangurban:
I like the Byzantine theme set against the sand. Would have liked a little 'more' to the scene rather than just the icon on its own.

In memory of Robin Williams, American actor recently died
by clickodak

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Critique Club Comment:

Interesting that I should get this as I was a huge Robin Williams fan since before anyone knew who or what a "Mork" was. That said, even while I knew he was a cyclist and had seen him on broadcast of Le Tour several times I did find the title a bit out of sync with what I would expect for a tribute image and I suspect that may have put some people off.

That said, even before I scrolled down I really liked this image for its stark simplicity. The color tonality is very basic and the off-white background works well with the color of the chain. There's not a lot else going on here, so what us there needs to be exacted perfectly and here's where I had a couple issues, ultimately giving you a 6 when I really wanted to give you more. There are really only two issues that I have - not enough depth of field and skewed orientation.

For the life of me I tried to find a reason why it would make sense to have the top and bottom out of focus, but without there being something in the center, on the chain, that would be emphasized by the lack of focus elsewhere I found the blurred sections to be distracting and would have much preferred the entire chain be in focus. The other thing is the right lean of the heart. While this is definitely not a perfect shaped heart, a 2-3 degree rotation of the image to the left gives the shape a straighter feel, and a more pleasing orientation - at least for me.

Otherwise I think that the only other thing this suffered from was being too simple in a challenge that normally shows off some wild images, so voters may have been inclined to undervalue it when held against some of the other images. Not necessarily fair, but that's the way things tend to work around here some times.

Openness on my next vacation
by clickodak

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Cool idea. Would have liked to see some of the green pulled away from the left side where it splits.

Hidden face
by clickodak

Comment by Bear_Music:
face in foil, I assume

Openness on my next vacation
by clickodak

Comment by jgirl57:
How creative is this! This has been awesome to see and different a bit bright on the bottom but the thought is there... very different and yes I love things like this