Strong Windby
DiscraftComment by Bear_Music: ***CRITIQUE CLUB RESPONSE***
Dis,
I liked this image a lot when I saw it in the challenge, and I like it still. It was one of the more creative interpretations posted, and it's technically well done. A small touch that particularly appeals is the blurring of the right foot, which adds a note of verisimilitude. Ditto the cocked knee's relationship to the bright horizon and the wonderful effect of the top part of the scarf "fluttering".
Two things strike me as slightly "off"; one you can deal with, the other you can't.
What you can't deal with is the position of the hands (and to a lesser extent, the arms): if this were "really" someone holding on to a pole for dear life, both arms would be fully extended and both hands would be wrapped around the pole. In the image, it's clear that the upper arm is being used as a "lever" to hold the pose. Maybe "clear" is too strong a word; perhaps most people would not notice this. In any case it's a minor thing.
What you CAN deal with is the cropping. Since the essence of a gale is horizontal movement, I think the extreme verticality of this image is working against the theme a little bit. I'd try cropping top and bottom significantly, while maintaining the same relative position of the figure. This will remove soem of the extreme verticality and let us savor the horizontal flow a bit more. I've taken the liberty of doing such a crop here:
I think this is a really fine & creative image in its own right, and even more so when measured against the challenge. Very good work, friend.
(robt)
Photographer found comment helpful.
