Hold On To Your Balloon
by cloudsme

Comment by glad2badad:
Just getting started poking around in this challenge. Looks like you've done a decent job of indicating wind with the balloon and the grass moving. Background sky is a little blah...not much to do about that though. Good luck in the challenge.

Hold On To Your Balloon
by cloudsme

Comment by xXxscarletxXx:
Good take on challenge

Hold On To Your Balloon
by cloudsme

Comment by hotpasta:
great image...love his expression as well

UP
by cloudsme

Comment by dahkota:
I had to do a critique club critique earlier on a ballon image. Everything it didn't have, this one has. Balloons float in space really; without a point of reference an image of one would be a picture of a thing - not very interesting in and of itself. Here, you set a mood and gave us context. The sky the balloon is wrapped in is doing something. And there is something else in the image that I know, that is concrete, that gives me reference. These two things make the balloon here all the more ethereal - the way it should be. I don't remember even seeing this on the front page. But, the score shows how good use of context and drama can turn an 'object' into an excellent photograph to which people can connect. Very well seen and taken. Congrats on your ribbon!

Evening Flight
by cloudsme

Comment by eschelar:
agreed. WAY underrated. I've often seen large flocks of birds in the evening and wondered how I would get a nice shot of them.

Starlings used to be my favorite in Canada, but I've seen some pretty impressive other birds around here too. Tough to light egrets evenly though because they don't fly so close...

This is excellent technically, but I like how - without a definitive subject - the picture has its own personality with the gradient of the sky and just the sheer complexity of shapes.

Certainly a photo in a class of its own... Ok, maybe 'photo without a subject'... :)

Walking Through the Meadow on a Foggy Morning
by cloudsme

Comment by klstover:
*Critique Club*

Wow, this is very pretty! The colors are just awesome. The composition is very serene - it looks so nice that I wonder if you didn't ask the deer to pose nicely for you ;-D I love the flowers, the shadows around the bottom, and how the deer seems to look right at the viewer. The almost-gradient from lighter colors at the top to darker at the bottom makes for an exquisite effect.

As others have said, this looks like a painting. Personally I find that wonderful to look at. From a photographic standpoint, however, it doesn't seem as "alive" as I would expect a photo to be. It seems very flat and noisy. The commenters, and myself, like the effect but I would imagine that other people might not, which probably did hurt your score.

All in all, congrats on such a GORGEOUS shot!! You might have some luck selling this as a print because it truly is lovely.

Walking Through the Meadow on a Foggy Morning
by cloudsme

Comment by SandyP:
Ohmygoodness! I LOVE this photo! I'm so surprised that it didn't score in the high 6's! Congratulations on a beautiful, amazing capture!!!!!

Walking Through the Meadow on a Foggy Morning
by cloudsme

Comment by pixeldust:
What a way to greet the morning! This looks like a painting. 10

Walking Through the Meadow on a Foggy Morning
by cloudsme

Comment by franyoung2002:
This picture is excellent, and makes me homesick! Excellent!

Walking Through the Meadow on a Foggy Morning
by cloudsme

Comment by LN13:
Ummm, are you sure you didn't just take a picture of the painting hanging on your wall? This is just fabulous! Perhaps a few too many jpeg artifacts, but the composition and color is superb.