Mail deposited here
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hah, I guess this was a work of Marcel :-) Nice true Canada Post red on the mailbox, the obligatory bilingual lettering, great focus, the settings are perfect for this capture...so what held it back?

I think that the lack of both size, space and human interaction of some sort are what stopped this image from doing better. Voters like to see a story and though you meant to show it as a letter starting its journey, the idea would have been better conveyed with a hand inserting the envelope into the mailbox. Look at the winning entry and I think all you see is a hand, but it's part of a person, and so we can all relate to going to the mailbox and reaching in to get whatever's there, be it a bill (ugh) or a Christmas card from a loved one.

Dare I say that this shot almost has a corporate feel to it, like CanPost paid you to take it; the very small size of it on the short side and lack of showing anything else going on around it. Is this inside a building or out on the street somewhere? We don't know, there isn't enough of the space around it to show us and give us some sense of place and story.

Hope this helps and keep up the good work,

Susan

Wheel of time abandoned
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Bonjour Marcel, comme ca va? (Sorry I can't get all the accents in where they should be ;-). Your English is much better than my French or even Franglais will ever be!

Very nice photo, well thought out with a nice, big, detailed wagon wheel dominating the image. FWIW I've never before seen a wagon wheel with those sets of double rivets before, and I've seen a lot! Good leading lines leading to it, good exposure, good use of thirds. I am glad that the small glimpses of houses seem to be older houses, and not very modern ones, which would ruin the feel of this shot.

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of vignettes, so many bad photogs use them as a crutch to prop up their own work, hoping to awe the viewer with a vignette. I don't think this image needs a white vignette; though I don't hate it, I can't say I'm a fan of it either. A commenter mentioned a dark vignette. Might be interesting, if you still have the original image, to dig it up and try it with a darker vignette and see the difference. Could make all the difference in the future!

Hope this helps,

Susan

Interconnection
by clickodak

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the Critique club

An interesting image that meets the challenge

What a marvellous subject for the challenge, so much potential, and you have certainly managed to find an interesting tree here. I love its twisted shapes and the lovely light falling on it but I don't think you have made the best of the opportunity. As one of your commenters has already stated the power lines are a huge distraction but so too is everything else. Your DOF is too great, though a larger aperture at what looks like the wide angle end of your lens would probably still make everything too sharp. The background is too busy and unattractive.

I think you could have created something much stronger by going in closer on the fungi and isolating this part of the trunk and branches against the sky thus eliminating those distracting power lines and making the most of the lovely light.

Thank you for your entry Marcel, hope you had a lovely festive holiday and a creative New Year to you.

Interconnection
by clickodak

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
An interesting looking tree. Seems like it is reaching out an arm to me. I like the subject, but I think another perspective could have perhaps impacted me more.

Morning window obscure
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Guess who is writing your critique for Obscured...I like the idea behind this shot, very good idea to make the pic through a partly fogged-up car window. The swipe to show us the tree was probably accidental in how it mirrors the tree shape. But I think it's the white of the house to the left that cost you here, it's like a flashing neon sign drawing us away from all the soft magic you have there in the middle and to the right. Zooming in a bit to focus more on the tree through the swipe, but without showing the house, probably would have helped.

Keep at it, Marcel; you're one of those tough photogs who can be in the lower 50 for awhile, then give everyone a pleasant surprise when you ribbon. Just keep shooting and don't be afraid to zoom in, zoom out, get down on your belly or up on a stepladder (safely of course)...just keep at it, experiment, have fun and learn.

Susan

Red Maple Leaf
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Aha, I guessed this was one of yours before I saw your name at the bottom, Marcel :-)

I gave this shot a 6 during voting. Here's why. I love the red maple leaf, it's nice and sharp, and oh so very, very safe. Centred composition, lots of extra twigs etc in the bg. Lighting behind is a little bland so it's not helping by backlighting the leaf which would help set it on fire and give it that nice glow. A tighter crop may have helped as would some cloning to get out distracting twigs behind the leaf.

Fall being what it is - very variable weather and all those brilliant colours going to waste - it doesn't hurt to pick up a fallen leaf and position it to advantage and then shoot it. But if this is all you had to work with, once again, contrast and saturation are your friends in post. That and maybe a different crop, or even try something like rotating the image and see if it brings new life to the image. I did that once in a Perspective challenge and got a blue ribbon, so it works at times! :-)

If it makes you feel any better, every year on DPC there is a Fall Foliage challenge and every year I shoot masses of pics of glowing golden sugar maple leaves, and rarely enter any of them, cause although they are pretty - staged or not - it's extremely difficult to come up with a fall foliage shot that hasn't already been done many times before. So to try and outdo them is VERY tough; if you can indeed come up with a new way to shoot leaves, please tell me!

Susan

Raining Day
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Merry Christmas, Marcel! Here's my critique for you on this very lovely image. Good composition, nice bright focal point, good use of negative space, nice dreamy feel to the whole image. Could use a little more contrast or saturation but as I was one of your 7s, I honestly don't know why this didn't do better. Wondering if people thought you just used a filter in post to get that effect?

Very glad to read in your notes that you put enough thought into the shot to actually sketch out what you wanted to get. That's an excellent idea as it makes you think and help cement the idea you want in your mind, so then you can work backwards to what you need to do to shoot it to get what you want. I believe gyaban uses this technique too, and as his work tends to be very complicated, it's just as well he does!

Anyway keep up the good work, don't stop what you're doing.

Susan

Raining Day
by clickodak

Comment by godot:
Interesting. Looks like the photo was taken through old glass, but the flower is nicely in focus. pretty cool.

Sumac Flames
by clickodak

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Muwahahahaaa...so we meet again, Marcel ;-) Glad to see I'm one of your 6s. This is a very nice shot, sharp and lots of contrast between the backlit leaves and those in the foreground. Good lighting and colours all throughout. Only problem is, there really isn't a dominant element to act as a focal point and that's where this image falls a little flat. Some commenters compare the leaves to soldiers, and that's both good and bad: they're all uniform, so to speak, and all are doing their best to look exactly like the other.

So what you need is a renegade element to break this perfect symmetry and cohesion and just wreak a little havoc here. maybe one leaf that's way more in the foreground, or one broken off a little or drooping. Something to break up that nice pattern, just enough.

Susan

Interconnection
by clickodak

Comment by giantmike:
Those power lines are a huge distraction.