Home & Safe at Dusk......
by NikonJeb

Comment by man:
simple profile

Home & Safe at Dusk......
by NikonJeb

Comment by snaffles:
looks like a desert sunset. 8

Home & Safe at Dusk......
by NikonJeb

Comment by TDubb:
Love the dark and colors.

Rose of Remembrance
by NikonJeb

Comment by Melethia:
This is perfect in black and white, both as a photograph (I love roses in B&W) and as a tribute. Nice softness to the petals, very well balanced composition, and an excellent sense of depth to the shot.

Rose of Remembrance
by NikonJeb

Comment by levyj413:
Jeb, I gave this a 7. I think it's a much better shot than your bokeh entry. I just think the soft petals and lovely light shine through more here. You also don't have the technical-minded looking for anything in particular, as opposed to in the bokeh challenge.

Faded Beauty
by NikonJeb

Comment by levyj413:
Jeb: first, I agree with everything Catherine (noraneko) said. I'd add to it that the color of the rose doesn't grab me, and so it might not have grabbed others.

Then there's bokeh. This shot has it, but the bokeh itself doesn't especially inspire or add to the subject. Look at the winner, and how the OOF spiderweb adds interest. Same goes for the circles in the second place shot. And the third place shot has the OOF flower adding to the sharp version of itself in the foreground. For example, imagine the background was completely black. Would the image suffer? I don't think so. Thus, the bokeh didn't add anything.

All of that said, your commenters loved it! So you can choose to focus on these things for the next bokeh challenge or you can choose to focus on hitting the mark quite well with a small crowd. Either choice is valid. :)

Faded Beauty
by NikonJeb

Comment by noraneko:
Jeb - an attempt at a critique of sorts. I gave you a 6, BTW.
First, I think the subject is lovely and the lighting is just about perfect. The use of green bokeh in the b/g is excellent as it provides a metaphorical foil to the dying rose.
Now for the reasons I think you barely missed that 6 on this one :-)

Although the rose appears initially to be in a nice position compositionally, I felt something was slightly off balance while voting. I think it's because the real subject (in my eye at least) is the center of the rose. The center is high and near the center - which gives a feeling of needing a bit more room on the top and less on the bottom. The rose also has a bit of a rigid vertical feel to it - if it were tilted slightly with the stem disappearing to the bottom left corner I think the line would lead nicely to the subject. Finally, I think that the whitish petals on the right side of the rose detract from the subject. The eye tends to always be drawn to the brightest part of a photo, and in this case it's those two petals.

Hope this is helpful - not meant to be harsh, as I do think it's a lovely photo and, as I said, exceptionally well lit. Just a couple ideas that might make it even stronger (and of course this is only my .02 - I'm far from an expert on photo critique!)

Faded Beauty
by NikonJeb

Comment by colorcarnival:
Personally I cannot tell you why it did not score a 6+. I gave this a 7. I love the detail and texture of the rose and it's placement in the frame. It's beautiful!

Faded Beauty
by NikonJeb

Comment by bassbone:
Jeb- A nice image - I gave it a 7 during voting.

The things I liked about the image was the richness of the fading rose - well illuminated, good textures, warm yet melancholy.

The reason it likely did not do better in voting is that the while there is a smooth background, the background does not have a large impact on the image. Having the background very muted tones of dark green did not give the fast voters enough eye candy to stick around and look. In addition, much of the background is quite dark without a lot of the 'little circles of light' that so many were expecting.

Faded Beauty
by NikonJeb

Comment by MaryO:
Nice contrast between the withered flower and the green background.