A Little Crooked with Your Straight?
by Ja-9

Comment by bvy:
Nice find!

Au Natural
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A well executed image that meets the challenge well

The main thing that hits me about this image is its stark simplicity both of composition and colour, I find both very appealing. There are so many boldly coloured flowers in nature it is instinct to choose one, I like your choice in boldly going against this tendency so what you end up with is effectively hues of more or less, just two colours, it works well.

I think your exposure is just a little on the high side, a little less exposure would have given more detail in the whites and saturated the greens more too, probably just a third or half a stop is all we're talking about. The soft focus flower in the background is a little close to the edge of the frame, I think moving everything just a little to the right would have improved the overall end result too.

I'm not sure about your commenters suggestion to flip it horizontally but it led me to thinking hmm… what about vertically? It might be worth a try just to see if it alters its impact.

Anyway, an excellent image, thank you for submitting, Sid

w a v e s
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

Congratulations on your ribbon, an excellent result for an excellent image that meets the challenge full on.

I love motion blur so its natural I would love your image. Even so, this is a lovely image in its own right, the amount of blur is good, and the colours are also good, the end result is an image that has enormous impact and appeal. I don't really think I can add any constructive critique except to say that the left of the image feels slightly weaker than the right but its a very minor criticism.

I love it, thank you for submitting, Sid

F O R E
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A very impressive shot that meets the challenge well.

What a fun challenge this was! I have not come across this concept before, I have to say what a great idea it is to introduce a fun element into your images. Your images have taken two straightforward ideas and transformed them into something with a completely new dimension.

The lower image is a quite standard landscape with what looks as though it may be the base of a wind turbine? I agree with one of your commenters there are some distracting elements but in the context of the combined images these are quite minor and do not impact on the end result. The upper image is very well done apart from some overexposure at the top of the ball which again in the context of the end result is quite minor.

The idea is quite simple and straightforward but very effective and has been well received here with a very respectable score and lots of positive comments all of whom I agree with. Well done and thank you for an excellent submission, Sid

p e a r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by Barroness:
Delicate and beautiful

p e a r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by ArnaMarie:
Lovely! The nice mute colours work really well for this kind of subject. Perhaps a little bit of burning in some of the corners would draw my attention even more to the lovely drops. Or I might be wrong :) Best of luck!

BIG FISH
by Ja-9

Comment by Alicia:
This is so good, Janine! Congrats on the bling!

F O R E
by Ja-9

Comment by FromDaRock:
I never got an entry in, but this is exactly what I had in mind to do. Well done.

~ Wisteria ~
by Ja-9

Comment by cowboy221977:
Hello from the critique club...

Nice shot Janine. I'm sure in another challenge this would have done much better. As you know free studies are difficult. Not a bad score anyway. Nice colors and nice DOF. I do think your crop on top is a little tight. It looks like some of the flower is cut off. Happy shooting

s p r i n g • r a i n
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A vibrant image that could be found in a stock library, thus fulfilling the challenge

There's no doubt that flowers, complete with water drops, has been done many times before to the extent that it has become cliched but in the context of the challenge your approach is perfectly understandable. You have chosen a plant with some very colourful flowers and given us plenty to look at which is part of the problem for me.

Given the large aperture I feel we have too shallow DOF for the subject, there are several appealing petals that are too out of focus and those that are are not placed at the best points to increase its impact. The front plane of the flowers would work better together if they were all in focus with softness appearing in the darker background flowers. I think either you ought to have used a smaller aperture and increased the DOF for this image as it stands or gone in closer on a smaller portion of the flower again with a smaller aperture.

I tend to disagree with your sole commenter in that you are already verging on overexposure at the top of the image and in one or two drops, anything further in that direction would be to its detriment so I personally wouldn't recommend doing that.

Thanks for submitting, Sid