Rishikesh ashram
by oldbimmercoupe

Comment:
Obviously a beautiful location, definitely meets the challenge with the abundant and varied plant life filling the frame. Good time of day to shoot, too--the light is at a lovely angle. But where is the focal point? Could you have used a wide-angle lens to make a foreground element out of a single plant? Maybe zoomed in or gotten closer to focus on one particular part of the foliage? There's a lot to see in this image--too much, really, because there's nowhere for my eye to settle. That significantly detracts from the impact of this photo. But it's unquestionably a great place to shoot--I hope you come back and try some new or different techniques there!

SS Dicky Spark Burst
by dazza17

Comment:
RamblinR mentioned this photo in a forum post --

I agree, this shot is awesome, both on its own terms and as judged against the (apparently many!) steel-wool-burn photos that have been discussed and linked to lately. Very nicely done.

edited for less-ugly formatting... {user} tags seem to mess things up

Message edited by author 2011-12-01 19:33:03.

Winter Home Botony Anthurium
by J-Me

Comment:
Good choice of subject; nice colors, and the glass-bead-looking things add an extra element of interest. Expoure is spot-on, too. But the light is too harsh. How did you light this? Looks like direct light from a single source. Dunno how much space you have, but if you can bounce the light off of something (a nice big sheet of foam core, for example), or put it through something (a thin sheet of translucent plastic (big plastic bag works)) on a frame, maybe--you get much softer light that tends to flatter floral subjects much better, and definitely avoids the hot spots that are messing with your bloom exposure. As it stands, simply cropping out the left side of the photo (which is adding nothing of interest), maybe going to a square or near-square crop, would (to me anyway) strength this photo a lot.

Asclepias Syriaca
by LoVi

Comment:
I like the choice of subject matter; many complex shapes, very organic, strong sense of movement. Good control of focus, too. But where is the focal point? My eye kind of wanders around looking for something to settle on, but finds nothing.

A Timeless Gesture
by hesitant

Comment:
Great lighting and colors. Maybe a slightly tighter crop, take a bit off of the left and right? I think some local sharpening at the center of the rose would have also added an extra pop. Well done in any event.

Dried Out
by mrbig65

Comment:
Great colors, love the high contrast and crisp detail. (I think you could have used a somewhat narrower aperture to good effect so that you could get more of the crunchy dried-out-ness good and razor-sharp.) The lower right is all dead area, though--if you'd burned that down to tones closer to the upper left, I think you'd have a much better balanced image that creates a stronger focus on the center of the rose.

Ingredients
by MinsoPhoto

Comment:
Glass, mirrors, and water... classic ingredients for a successful DPC shot. And I do like it--it's pleasing visually, it ties well to the challenge theme, and the concept is clever and original. Despite my feeling that you'd have a stronger image with better control of reflections (use a polarizer, maybe?), I still find this quite successfully executed and am scoring it highly.

Green Monster
by alexrad

Comment:
Great sense of scale: there's a grandness to this photo that's hard to plan or learn how to create deliberately. But definitely the soft light and the glowy/faded-gaussian-blur treatment lend to that. Nicely done.

The Magic of the Rose
by neenee1999

Comment:
If you're going to shoot a rose, you really have to make sure it's a fantastic shot, otherwise it just winds up looking like all the other pictures of roses out there... that being said, it looks like you spent a while with this and were working outside of your comfort zone, which I always think is great and will make you a better photographer... unfortunately I cannot in good faith give this a high score, but I hope you will keep pushing yourself and entering.

The Botanist
by Oz

Comment:
Very nice. I'd have to think really hard to come up with constructive criticism for this photo... it's just very nicely handled in all respects, from concept to execution.