No Stopping Waldoby
VonneypixComment by MistyMucky: Greetings from the Critique Club :)
My first impression was a big WOW about the fantastic perspective!
A key to great landscape photography is to recreate a 3D feeling with only 2 dimensions. You succeeded so perfectly that this image could be used as a textbook example. The sign does most of the job and I certainly do not agree with the comment which asks for leaving it out. There are loads of prominent lines in your composition, which are very interesting for the eye to be followed. They are nicely balanced by the curve of the bridge.
The early time of the day gives a nice warm lighting with pleasant colors. The side lighting enhances the shape of the rocks. The focus and exposure seem perfect. But you should know that using small apertures creates diffraction blur, I'm not sure if you really needed that small for a good depth of field. So far so good for the technicals. But I am not convinced by your choice of HDR. One of the disadvantage of this technique is that it can produce quite flat color tones. If you look at the cliff for instance, there's a terrible lack of detail (I thought it was from sharpening first). Also the rocks in the foreground could look better by increasing a bit the contrast in the mid-tones. Moreover, I cannot see any advantage you get from HDR in this specific case. If you just had some exposure issues in some areas, it could be more effective to work with layer masks.
The subject (Waldo) is very difficult to make out. There's a strangely colored 'rock' between the utmost left pillars of the bridge which must be him. I know that the challenge is that he is difficult to be found, but once I do find him I want to distinguish a bit more.
From my two last points you should have a possible explanation why your picture scored relatively low. And low it is for such an outstanding composition. As the composition is the hardest thing to learn in my opinion, I am pretty convinced that we will see some ribbons from you in a near future :)
If you have any questions or remarks about this critique, feel free to contact me.
Mike
Photographer found comment helpful.