Doorway Arch, University College, U of T
by gerdagrice

Comment:
Nice composition! Is the bottom-right part metallic, or just slightly over-sharpened?

Dragonfly
by pauld

Comment:
Impressive shot! Nice composition too. The (slightly overexposed) glare on the wings is a bit distracting though.

Liquid Life
by Nazgul

Comment:
Nice idea. The desaturation left back some artifacts where the syringe is joined with the needle.

Night watch
by pcody

Comment:
Nice composition. The shallow DoF pulls my eyes yo the bottom-right. I would be curious to see it with the whole clock surface in sharp focus.

Freedom of Thought - giving it a chance
by jjbeguin

Comment:
I think this deserved to end up way higher (it was my only 10 for this challenge, together with this one).

Red White and Blue
by nathaliedoo

Comment:
This was my favourite shot for this challenge (I gave it 10). And it does say "freedom".

In The Beginning
by jmsetzler

Comment:
This is SO fun and beautiful too look at. I love the composition.

Another life
by ccjp

Comment:
Thanks to all the persons who dropped a comment! You were way generous with your votes, and I do appreciate the encouragement. At the same time, I was disappointed to see _14_ ones - it means that many voters didn't think my image related to nostalgia at all, which is kind of ironic because I thought it was almost too "literal".

Let me add a few notes. First of all, the shot was not staged. I had already boarded the subway when I noticed this young woman watching her own reflection, and that triggered my attention. I waited for the train in front of her to leave, and took my shot. I liked the idea of a departing train as a metaphor of time passing by, and I also liked the idea of this woman staring at her reflection because it feels like watching your past self. Watching yourself, your past as it goes by - this felt very nostalgic to me. During post-processing I wanted to enhance the idea of this woman longing for her "other life". She was pretty short, and two tall guys were at her sides, so I cropped away both her legs and the guys, placing her in the frame according to the rule of thirds. In the reflection you can see one of the guys I cropped away and the woman herself, although it's not obvious that it's the same woman because the front of her shirt was so different from its back. I didn't mind this, because it makes you wonder "is it herself?", "who is that guy?", "was she with that guy in her other life?", "is she longing for a past love?", "or are they her parents, now passed away?". I liked the ambiguity, I found it intriguing. The quality of the image, though, was not good and the train looked brighter and more prominent than the woman herself. So I decided to go for some aggressive post-processing, and used curves and levels to give the image somehow inverted colors and a grainy look. I tried to make the image more "flat", suggesting that she is indeed part of that departing train, and at the same time I wanted her to stand on her own, alone in her present life. I also tried to make the departing train look like a roll of film unfonding in front of her, the reflection being a frame of her past (I didn't succeed though).

Message edited by author 2003-09-27 00:07:00.

silent energy
by Pep Ventosa

Comment:
The motion blur in the background is very effective in isolating the subject and conveying his lonely effort and his concentration. I like the shadow of the bicycle, too, and the overall composition.

Can you guess who's hiding in here?
by BJ

Comment:
This would have deserved to be way higher in the ranking, in my opinion (I gave it 9). The composition is really original and the DoF enhances this idea of a hiding monster. Makes your imagination run. One of my favs for this challenge.