Capturing my niece on edge of my fork
by WonderDude

Comment by clickodak:
Very nice composition Very creative I give 8

Capturing my niece on edge of my fork
by WonderDude

Comment by PennyStreet:
funny...

A Horse is a Horse of Course
by WonderDude

Comment by snaffles:
Already critiqued...

A Rope At Rest
by WonderDude

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I gave this a 6 in voting (and guessed a fan, hehe) and agree with what Jake says here, that the comp and oof bg help here, but not the oof loop closest to the camera. I also like the oof lower part of the rope. Your high ISO is bordering on noisy in the bg upper left/centre, and clearly you shot wide open. Keep in mind that most lenses work best at a couple of stops down from wide-open, so f.4 and up would have helped...and again, I see you shot handheld. Time to invest in a lightweight travel tripod!

Susan

A Winter Sunset After A Light Snow
by WonderDude

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Not a bad sunset shot, and a light amount of fallen snow, but this time the voters wanted to see something much more dramatic - big flowing clouds, thunderstorms, insane amounts of snow. This is Ok but it's just a sunset, and those danged trees are in the way! The sculpture(?) or pile of chairs in the lower right third looks like it's meant to be a focal point, but it's too small and insignificant, so the eye goes roaming looking for more.

If this is the kind of photography you want to pursue, get a tripod (even a cheap one will do) and use much longer exposures and much smaller apertures and ISOs to get the kind of dramatic sunset shots that do well here. I don't know many Texas landscape shooters, but maybe Kobba, who tends to like wildlife, has seen some areas that would be good for sunsets. Try PMing him and see.

Hope this helps

Susan

A wise man named Tom
by WonderDude

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

An interesting portrait of an interesting man, to be sure :-) I guess you can see why the number of hand comments, the angle here gives him an even larger set of hands than he already has! The one closest to the viewer is literally the size of his head. If this is what you wanted, it works!

Now, pay attention to the restaurant lighting. The lights are overhead and pointing straight down, so while his forehead, cheekbones, hair and to an extent, his beard, catch the light...the eyes are in harshly defined shadow, as is the mouth. It just doesn't really work. The angle of the booth behind his head draws attention away from him and down the wall to the visible wall light. There's a reason why portraits are generally just head and shoulders!

Hope this helps

Susan

Smoke Break For The Working Man
by WonderDude

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I quite liked this image and gave it a 7 in voting so thought it would finish higher than it did. I think you beat me :-) Stuart and his pose here reminds me of Nathaniel Rateliffe, of whom I am a fan. You have a lot of grey tones in there, but I don't see true black, though pretty sure there is pure white in there. The lighting and comp are great. I can't see the extensive pp work, so kudos for making it invisible!!

Honestly I don't know why portraits seem to have been soundly panned in this challenge. Seems like the voters were expecting nothing less than towering peaks and cool urban shots, and anything more earthy and/or human just wasn't in the cards.

Hope this helps!

Susan

Smoke Break For The Working Man
by WonderDude

Comment by lei_73:
Awesome portrait, great composition, apocalyptic sky!

Smoke Break For The Working Man
by WonderDude

Comment by Kodak:
Interesting

A wise man named Tom
by WonderDude

Comment by bvy:
Those hands tell the story!