Road traveled
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hi Marcel, this was a lucky little surprise to find amongst all those flowers you had to choose from :-) I too see and love the tongue-like aspect of the petal, and the tininess of the slug - this did very well considering that it's a slug and not something cute like a butterfly. The shallow dof works very well and all your settings look fine to me. Two small changes I might suggest is perhaps stopping up to f3.2 or f.4, as usually lenses aren't at their sharpest wide open, and as this was a Minimal challenge (and cropping ain't allowed) just doing more to fill the frame with the petal. The left half, though it does help draw the eye to the petal and slug, is a black void just sitting there twiddling its thumbs so it may as well be put to good use!

Overall a very good and charming image, and belated congrats on the top ten! Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more from you in the future :-)

Susan

Road traveled
by clickodak

Comment by tnun:
quite arresting. the hated slug in innocent miniature on a long red tongue (petal). a triumph of minimals.

Road traveled
by clickodak

Comment by colorcarnival:
I love this. I've never seen a tiny slug - probably because I'm just not that observant. It's such a cute picture.

Road traveled
by clickodak

Comment by kiwinick:
a nice little snap would like more contrast 5

Airplane Approach
by clickodak

Comment by GeorgesBogaert:
congrats on the HM

Airplane Approach
by clickodak

Comment by Cyrilda:
Congratulations for your HM.

Airplane Approach
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Hi Marcel, congrats on the HM, and thanks so much for the tribute! Glad I was able to inspire you :-)

Airplane Approach
by clickodak

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An interesting image that contributes well to the challenge.

Great composition Marcel, well captured. The diagonal is what makes this work so well and filling the frame as you have it fulfils the brief completely. I like the reflections on the underside of the plane it adds an intriguing touch to the end result. Everything is in good sharp focus, all in all an excellent result both in score and position well done Marcel.

Road traveled
by clickodak

Comment by Art Roflmao:
One of my favs in this challenge. 9

Smoker
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Marcel, I was one of your 7s because this whimsical image cracked me up, with a *smoking* cigarette collector! Did a wonderful job of meeting the criteria for the challenge. Loving the moustache too, it along with the googly eyes gives the collector a great sense of personality. Your settings look pretty spot on to me.

Now, why didn't this image do better...definitely the flat lighting and mostly grey-on-grey bg just made it too monochrome to look at, until you see the face. I feel that the centredness of the composition is both a strength and a weakness. If there had been a way to shoot it from a different angle - either lower down or more from one side - it may have given you a cleaner bg to shoot against, and a way to avoid the dead-centre comp.

Overall a good effort and it still makes me smile! Hope this ciritique has been helpful.

Susan