The Disturbing Secret
by smoon273

Comment by atsxus:
cute photo. Cropping in on the faces would bring you more into the moment, however, and maybe bringing down the hightlights would soften it. It's a bit blown out.

Lake Skating
by smoon273

Comment by Skip:
while i appreciate your effort here, i think that it is falling a bit short. for bokeh to work, it has to compliment and enhance the subject. here, the skater is the dominant subject, and it is oof. the foreground elements are just that, even though they are what is in focus. with some judicious cropping, you actually could have pulled a strong entry out of this image (ie, if you had zeroed in on the set of leaves on the right hand side). hope this helps.

The Disturbing Secret
by smoon273

Comment by Art Roflmao:
Composition: 6, Cropped a little too tight
Technical: 6, Not fond of sepia for this pic - bw woulda been cool though
Appeal: 7, Cute!
Challenge: 10
Overall Score: 6, (weighted)

The Disturbing Secret
by smoon273

Comment by Gallatin:
Cute kids, nice work.

Lake Skating
by smoon273

Comment by tristalisk:
I don't feel that the brokeh enhanced this shot I feel that the person should have been the in focus object. Or that it should have been a closer crop of just the right side creating a tall photo with brokeh snow as the background completely leaving the person out.

A Bear or A Boy?
by smoon273

Comment by Jutilda:
Love this !!!! The soft focus lends itself to the softness of the plush figures. Way to go. A definite winner.

A Bear or A Boy?
by smoon273

Comment by RipRap:
no cute votes

Lake Skating
by smoon273

Comment by AndrewTO:
To me this is a dull picture that hardly meets the criteria of this challenge (sorry to say). "take a photograph whose subject is enhanced by the bokeh of the background." OK, so we have a background that is out of focus, I am not sure though what subject in the foreground it is supposed to enhance. (3)

Lake Skating
by smoon273

Comment by jfwolpert:
i like the hint of what's happening in the back

Lake Skating
by smoon273

Comment by ahaze:
The short definition of Bokeh from KenRockwell.com, which I am using for voting on this challenge: "Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light." Check. Is the subject enhanced by the bokeh of the background? I think this photo would have worked better the other way around, with the human in focus. Should also make use of the full 640 pixels allowed on the long side- it would have helped your score a bit.