Playground Abstract
by mariomel

Comment by pinback:
Good composition.

Inferno
by mariomel

Comment by Lustre:
Great work - this will rank very highly this week. It's on-topic, is crisp, has lovely colour and even includes glass! Well done on a lovely shot.

Playground Abstract
by mariomel

Comment by dsidwell:
This would be even more of an abstract (which is done well by the way) if the screws were absent. Perhaps when the voting is over, you can create a version without the screws. Very nice composition and point of vew. Colors are cheerful and the abstract works because of the lines you've captured.

Playground Abstract
by mariomel

Comment by jodiecoston:
This is the best of the 'playground' shots I've seen yet. Great composition. Nice work. 9

Playground Abstract
by mariomel

Comment by pollonos:
Cropping of the light shade of blue at the left would maybe have made it simpler! I like it a lot though.

Inferno
by mariomel

Comment by MattW:
a little too dark, but i like the symetry

Inferno
by mariomel

Comment by pinback:
Good effect.

Inferno
by mariomel

Comment by erin_m02:
Nice symmetry!

Inferno
by mariomel

Comment by Amiee:
Very nice image. Good use of pattern. I also like the range of color that parallels with the darkness of the image.

Three Views Around the Lake
by mariomel

Comment by ursula:
Greetings from the Critique Club,

This is my first critique, I just joined the Critique Club, and I am so glad your entry came up! The three pictures are beautiful, each could stand on its own, and I think that as a composition the three look even better than individually. Your final score in the challenge attests to this.

The colours of the pictures are very good. The blues and greys are just intense enough to reinforce the calm, foggy mood. The browns, oranges, blacks, and bit of green on the ground set off the blues just right. The silhouettes of trees and land complete the moody tone.

The composition meets the challenge without problem. I like the white background, any other colour would overwhelm. I like the staggered spacing, although I think that these tree pictures could be arranged in a number of different ways and look good together. I like it that the inside spaces (spaces between the pictures) are smaller than the space outside - it works very well here, and helps to pull the three together.

I find the drop-shadows on the individual photos a bit distracting. They look a bit more like a "blur" than like a shadow. You probably added them before resizing the pictures? One possibility would be to resize first, then add the shadows.

The black border line around the three pictures is also a bit distracting IMO, mainly because it lays further back than the pictures (because of the drop-shadows). On the one hand, it pulls the three photos together, on the other hand, it doesn't really add that much. One possibility might be to place the three on the simple white background, no black line, but push them up just a little (as a group), so that the top white space is smaller than the bottom white space - just an idea. I think one could play around for quite a while here.

The best part of this composition is that I can come back to it and look at it over and over, and still like it, still be drawn into it. Congratulations on a job well done!

Ursula I. Abresch

PS - Did you notice that placements number 7, 8, and 9 in this challenge were taken by Canadians?