Grace Smiling
by Bud

Comment by sulamk:
Good B&W shot but the eyes are too flat & expressionless. Nice crop!

Grace Smiling
by Bud

Comment by Jutilda:
Captivating.

Day's End
by Bud

Comment by Melethia:
Good striking contrasts in this and nice comp with the land mass tapering off into the water. I agree with Erik, though, that the sky could use a bit of smoothing.

50-Untitled Portrait
by Bud

Comment by Melethia:
You do the nicest things with natural light - and you shoot people with the most interesting faces and expressive eyes. This is no exception.

Day's End
by Bud

Comment by ErikV:
Nice composition, interesting scene. Like how the graininess adds texture/character to the water, but upper part of sky (especialy towards left) does not benefit in same way.

50-Untitled Portrait
by Bud

Comment by Ken:
It's good to see you back, Bud. I'm trying to play catchup myself! Iraklis nailed it with his comment about it being gentle, because that's the first thing I thought when I saw this. You've done a great job isolating your subject, but subtlety, not "in your face" processing.

50-Untitled Portrait
by Bud

Comment by Iraklis:
Another good portrait! Very gentle...

43 - Basket Lid
by Bud

Comment by Ken:
Cool patterns, Bud. I bet this would look great as a square crop.

The Lil' Hillbilly
by Bud

Comment by NikonJeb:
What an enchanting image! Lovely capture!

Night Sentinel
by Bud

Comment by mchalmers:
A photo that has a lot of potential.
I agree with yospiff that the star trails are not long enough to be really effective. Overall, I think the composition in frame is good. However, when I look at this photo, I am not sure what the subject is supposed to be.

The title would lead me to believe that the large tree around center frame is the subject. However, it's only a silhouette, and therefore is an extraneous background element. IMHO, what would have really helped this photo is to light that foreground tree... Fairly simple to do with such a long exposure. Hit it with a strobe, shine a flashlight on it and paint it with light, use a worklight; whatever is handy.

Photos like this bother me because they have tons of potential, but a few glaring issues caused voters to score it low. With a few minor alterations, this could have scored near the top of the pack.

From the Discussion Composition, Technicals, asthetics Etc thread