Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by Gallatin:
Nice idea, having the sky as a background.

Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by ellamay:
i like your composition, and outdoors, but wish pieces were sharper

Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by BobsterLobster:
Lovely idea... I would have liked the clouds to have looked more ominous. Great focus & DOP.

Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by tomzinho:
looks like a nice day for a fight. i love the sky through the chess pieces. i wonder if using the dof helps here - it might have been pretty neat if the far pieces were also in focus and we were seeing the sky through them as well.

Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by zeuszen:
A lil more sharpening is what I would have wished for...

Helicopter dusting crops
by carolee

Comment by carolee:
Thanks for the comments, folks! I had one that I'd cropped in MUCH closer, and it was a lot brighter that way, but I thought the way the helicopter stood out with the mist was somehow more interesting. Also, when it was cropped closer, it was just a helicopter and not a dramatic crop-duster flying over a neighborhood and waking everyone up.

I must agree with y'all, though, that it doesn't work very well as a photograph in a general sense. Ah, next week, perhaps! :)

Preparing for battle
by carolee

Comment by Pedro:
nice twist on a studio shot we've seen a hundred times. Indoors with a backdrop wouldn't have worked as well as this. I like the clouds.

On the wrong side of the glass
by carolee

Comment by sylandrix:
Greetings from the Critique Club!...

COMPOSITION...First off, I think the background in this photo is excellent, non-distracting but colorful and I really don't think it would be the same with a simple-toned or duller background. Vertical cropping also suits the subject pretty well. I like the fact the exposure has made the mosquito very dark - in fact I think it would have been a stronger image if only the form of the mosquito was defined (mosquito being pure black)... I think the only thing that perturbs me is the fact that the mosquito is just floating there in a sea of colors without seeming to be flying or anchored to anything (because it is in fact, resting on glass). Otherwise it is a very creative and technically difficult submission.

TECHNIQUE... everything good, but image quality is a little under average. Was the photo blown up a bit? high iso?

OVERALL... Unless you have gigantic mosquitos in CA, you managed to give to make this one look large and menacing :) The flowers give the shot an "outdoor" look and it makes a good entry into the fauna challenge.

Helicopter dusting crops
by carolee

Comment by mbardeen:
Cropping the top half off of this picture would really help for me. Then 8, now 5.

Helicopter dusting crops
by carolee

Comment by eloise:
All right, but not very strongly anything in particular. Helicopter is nice and sharp, but the rest of it's misty/blurry/hard to make out, and the cropping/composition makes the landscape the real star. Given that, the landscape should be easier to see ...