Cage
by johnmk

Comment by HBunch:
i'm not really sure this photo screams childhood, but it could be taken a few different ways. given the title, it could mean a childhood locked up (not nessisarily literally, but in some way). This looks like a hotel, maybe you did a lot of traveling as a child. The angle and patterns are great. Lighting was perfect. I like the contrast of the horizontal lines in the foreground (the wood) to the vertical lines as the subject (the gates). good luck in the challenge.

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by Swashbuckler:
O.K. this is a fine shot, of what? What is the bar at the bottom of the "cage"? 6 Swash

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by floyd:
Good choice of subject but I think I would like to get a little closer. It took me a while to see the actual subject of the picture against all those railings.

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by Journey:
I am at a loss what exactly it is I'm looking at. It reminds me of entrances to apartments in Europe (I grew up there myself). Perhaps it is the entrance to a school, but that is even less clear to me. If that is correct then I find that to the cage idea a bit of a stretch. Being indoors is not necessarily caged, not even to a child. If I'm making the wrong assumptions here, feel free to PM me with further explanations if you wish. Journey
Thanks for the PM with explanations. Some suggestions: the cage effect would be much stronger if you blur the apartments further or perhaps better yet crop out the image right above the top of the "cage". It emphasizes the "cage" aspect and also gives more important to the toddler's "gate". It would still read as an entrance but all the focus then is how you visualized that entrance into a cage. Would also crop out the stairs to the right. It distracts from the strong lines of the cages. Nice sharp image, I love the design of the cage. 6 Journey

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by myqyl:
With all the white bars, finding the toddler gate was very hard...

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by freetime:
I'm sorry I don't understand!

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by autool:
Composition: Subject Placement, Cropping, Background6,
Technical: Focus, Exposure, Lighting, Processing5,
Challenge: Does your entry meet it?3,
Appeal: Is it Interesting, Motivating, Etc.? 4,
Total Averaged Rating5. Autool

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by scw1217:
How does this deal with abandoned childhood?

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by razwan:
I am not sure how to relate to this photo, perhaps it is too personal to you. It doesn't make me feel anything (positive or negative) about childhood. On second thoughts, is the open baby gate supposed to represent an adult (who once was a child) leaving home? At least you made an effort to create a photo with feeling rather than a snap of a teddy-bear, so full marks in that respect. This is not an easy thing to do (and I speak from experience) and perhaps the lack of feeling is due to my lack of vision / imagination... I don't know. However, Ido feel that it is the photographer's responsibility to invoke some feelings / reaction to the photo (as opposed to expecting the viewer to think hard and imagine all the possible tangents). You may not agree with me, this is just my opinion.

Cage
by johnmk

Comment by just-married:
Interesting commentary. It appeals to me, although it probably won't to most. It doesn't after all ellicit happy-go-lucky feelings. Still, I like what it has to say. Photographically, there are a lot of nice lines in this photo. You've got the handrails coming perpendicular toward the floorboards; the up and down of the railing pickets against the left-right of the mini blinds, and the strong black lines of the windows to contrast the white railings. The orange picks this picture right up. I like it. 7, just-married