High Tide on the Thamesby
e301Comment by Koriyama: =critique club=
Before starting, I'd just like to say that after quite a long break from doing this, I read a forum thread a few minutes back re-urging folks to continue producing critics - started by you! Then this photo comes up! Talk about co-incidence.
You seem to be contrasting the openness of the sky with that of the water as your two key elements. These work with the cityscape silhouettes and the challenge is met well. I don't know if you intended this, but I like the idea of the city/ man controlling the water but being dominated by the much greater force of the sky. Man has always tried to conquer the sky by building bigger, taller, wider building, by creating machines that challenge the dominance of the sky. In this photo, you've shown a new ferris wheel (?) extending right into the clouds, as if saying that this is man's latest attempt. This is a nice idea. A further irony is present in that the buildings on the right were, at one time, serious challengers in the contest 400 years ago.
In terms of colour, there's an overall feeling of darkness. Maybe you meant to protray London's bleakness, but, for me, the resulting image is not entirely pleasing. Possibly that's because the ferris wheel is backed by the darkest cloud mass (detracting from its presence somewhat), whereas the parlimentary buildings have a little more open space. Certainly the bright areas don't add to the composition in terms of placing, although they do in terms of shape.
A question about the silhouette: there are shades of grey and light discernable in them. I'm not sure whether or not you aimed for a true silhouette or simply underexposed the buildings. I feel that doing either 100% would have resulted in a stronger entry.
So, on the whole, I think that this is a good idea which could be usefully reworked. It scored over 6 in the challenge, but I would give only a 5. Sorry.
Photographer found comment helpful.
