Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by MaryO:
Like the high key processing and the shadow, and particularly like the wing position and the reflection. It's really cool that the wing, shadow and reflection all converge at the wingtips. Really extraordinarily good angle and timing on your part. I might dodge the face a bit to get more detail there and maybe crop a little tighter on the right and bottom so he's not so centered, but the shot is certainly better than the score it got.

Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by JuliBoc:
This is so cool with the bird, shadow, and reflection all grouped so beautifully. The position of the bird is excellent, with the wing tips in the water. And I like the high key effect. Really nice image!

Afternoon Light
by Alicia

Comment by BAMartin:
I love the softness of this portrait and how it make this woman look so very feminine. I do agree with some of your other commenters that the bright spots are a little distracting, but that would be very easy to fix.

Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by cpanaioti:
I think you have a good idea here and high key can work. A couple of things that I think let it down though.

1) The water at the top of the shot - to me doesn't add anything. You could safely crop it out.
2) The head of the bird is too dark. Bring out the shadows on the head and I think you'd have a killer shot in conjunction with 1).

Message edited by author 2008-02-08 17:42:41.

Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by krnodil:
Dang! A little too early for Reflections without Mirrors. :) This has a certain grace, a little loss of detail in the brighter spots, but overall an impressive capture.

Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by colorcarnival:
lol you know you should have called this "doing pushups - birdie style". That is what it looks like he is doing! It's so cool how the wing-tips are just grazing the water and the feet are sticking up behind him. What great timing for this catch!

Afternoon Light
by Alicia

Comment by Ken:
That Hava Java is becoming quite the spot for you! I like the high contrast, but would like to see a little less of the blown out spots on her hair. The blur certainly works here, especially on the hair. I find the overall style of this compelling, and want to try it myself. How did you create the border?

Someone is not happy
by Alicia

Comment by Ken:
You've captured a great expression here - he just seems to be gazing off into space. The blur on the paper adds that little touch to make it come to life. Great job on the processing; you're quite the master of this style.

Water Dancer
by Alicia

Comment by glad2badad:
The first thing I catch when viewing this is the wingtips just touching the sand. Then the presence of the reflection and it's resulting odd circle. Isolation of the subject, via high contrast, works very well.

That's my first impression.

Then to get critical, after all this is DPC right?...I notice some other things, good and ok. The birds shadow. I missed it at first. Adds another element of interest - that's good. :) The birds feet outstretched behind in flight. Didn't catch that initially, but it adds in giving a sense of urgency and timing to the capture. The sand, the water, the pelican, all worked to tell me this was taken at the shoreline...the washed out lapping water in the bg confirm that upon further review (doesn't add nor take away). Yes, the bird is a tad blurry in spots (mostly motion blur? on the leading wing) - would the image be stronger if the entire bird was spot on...yes, but it doesn't entirely kill the photo because it's not.

All JMO of course. Nice capture overall.

Java Guy
by Alicia

Comment by Ken:
I like how you've captured this guy "in his own world". I especially like that window there (or is it a frame?) with car suggesting yet another space. You may want to try some soft focus or Orton to get dreamy, although I can seem some here already.