Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by fsteddy:
very nice lighting

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by DougPaz:
Nice composition, just a bit soft on the focus. DPz

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by decoteau:
Good composition, but too yellow.

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by fsieradzki:
Alittle blurry.

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by justine:
Nice collection of drums...very attractive. I think your lighting let you down a bit here, but this is still nice. Score 6 Justine

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by IGJOE:
A little bit too yellowish. This would have had a stronger impact if it were B/W.

Heartbeat of Africa
by sulamk

Comment by shedonist:
Nice photo, but I wish there were some more non-yellow tones in it too.

Swans
by sulamk

Comment by Kavey:
The shapes formed by these two objects mirroring each other are interesting. I find the contrast too high for my liking and the objects too black.
7, Kavey

Swans
by sulamk

Comment by Yomi:
It would have been cooler if the heads were out more and could make a heart. I don't like the shadows at the bottoms of them. 5

Swans
by sulamk

Comment by just-married:
I think this is one of the better examples of the use of negative space this week. The space around your subject definitely interests me. It appears to create the shape of a bird in flight, viewed from either directly above or directly below. That's particularly nice to me for two reasons 1) It maintains and furthers the subject matter of the photo, and 2) it forces your eye to an entirely different plane, (by which I mean we view the swans from the side which provides a definite sense of direction; then the neg space creates this bird, which we view from above - creating a different three dimensional plane altogether...)

I also saw the shape of a rams head in the neg space, which was equally strong (in fact, my first inclination), but less relevant to the subject matter, so I chose to maintain the first idea described.

I only have two constructive tidbits to add: 1) The background appears to be felt, which has a texture of its own (and therefore it's own gradations of color), especially in a shot this close. I would prefer a background that was totally white. Perhaps muslin would work better. 2) The focus and lighting seem to be concentrated on the lower portion of the bird on the right. I would prefer to see it more by the heads and necks of the swans since that's where the eye needs to travel in order to explore your negative space.

Great job. 9, just-married