My Childhood Literature
by goodtimecharlee

Comment:
Kabooom!!! Zhoooooosh! Whhhhhoooooosh!! This comics lingo translates into this is a great image. Excellent composition and the toning is superb. It probably would have been mighty garish if this had been done in color. The image is well, well controlled and balanced and I have been studying it on what makes it work (i.e. it ought to be very busy and yet it is relatively quiet to the eye!). First round of voting:8; definitely will revisit this lateron this week. Journey. ~~~~~~~~~ZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPFH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update: Another reason I like the B&W is that it gives a nostalgic flair to the image; it harks back to the past, to perhaps a more simpler life with B&W tvs and such.
This is one of two 10s I am giving out this week. Of all the pictures I consider this one the most sophisticated and the strongest in design. I have one little nitpick: would have liked to see the little triangle in the top left corner black. It being white (and more white surrounding it) makes it somewhat tempting for the eye to wander out of the image. Unless you are a purist, you can see this for yourself in Photoshop by filling that triangle with black. Congrats 10 Journey

Play time is over
by Frank Beckman

Comment:
Beautiful imagery, beautiful symbolism. IMHO, the image would have been much stronger and much more subtle if you had cropped out the large horizontal shape at the bottom and also the dark clouds at the top. Right now those two black shapes frame this image and I find it rather restricting. Without them there are plentyof dark shapes left and the message comes across anyway. Well done. Prelim: 7 Journey

Shedding of Innocent Blood (God Help Them!)
by Gracious

Comment:
This image backfires big time on me. I understand what you are trying to convey but that is a very heavy, heady subject and if you set out to do that you have to do it very well. This is trite and phony and as a result, unwittingly no doubt, it belittles exactly the big tragedies that ought not to happen to children at all. The lillies of the valley are plastic (phony) and the blood is fake and lies there in a phony pattern. The background is just some cheap piece of cloth. Everything here is just phony. It takes a pro to do imagery on the subject you chose and I realize you meant well but the only sentiment it invokes in me is irritation. Sorry. Journey

let's play dress up!
by lecook

Comment:
This is very busy with all the different colors and fabric patterns and jewelry. It makes it hard for the eye to focus on anything. Journey

fear of the Supernatural
by sanandan

Comment:
Sorry, the connection with Childhood escapes me here. Nice, clean image though. 6 Journey

A Fish Tale ...
by sgtpepper6344

Comment:
I am a little lost here. Okay, kids go fishing but so do adults, don't they? I am not marking you down for not meeting the challenge but I just don't know why I am looking at this. The image is all rigt, very blurred though. 5 Journey

explore
by john22132

Comment:
This is pleasant landscape. It relates to childhood only because of the title. Yes, kids explore so do adults. So, I don't see anything specifically "Childhood" about this. Methinks, not enough contrast in the dark trees in the background. 5 Journey

once its lost you can never get it back
by brent matsuo

Comment:
You know I have a hard time figuring this one out. No idea what I'm looking at. BTW, the correct spelling is " it's". Neither the composition, the color scheme or the props have great visual appeal to me. Sorry. Journey

After The Rain
by Nero

Comment:
When I started voting Sunday night, I gave this image a prelim score of 8. The last 10 minutes I have been comparing this image with the other boot image. I see some wonderful effects in this image: the raindrops on the boots, the inside of the boot and the red plastic jacket: nice reflection on it in the foreground and blurring interestingly in the background. The grass blurrs nicely too. I have two problems with this picture: 1. it is too busy. There are too many elements vying for attention: the boots with the raindrops, the grass with raindrops, the jackets with all the reflections and the wooden toy. This image would have been so much stronger if those elements had been reduced to just a few. I think the wooden toy is definitely redundant and marring the overall effect. 2. I don't like the cropping of the top boot and I think the 429 x 640 was a mistake (I think the width is 429 but I may be wrong; it FEELS very narrow, see my following sentence). I would dearly love to see this image as a 640x 480, i.e. landscape style, and give all these textured elements some room to expand and breathe. Then there would be much greater overall harmony in the image and tranquillity would exude from it. Great job though. Final score: 8 Journey

Carefree
by mcmurma

Comment:
Love this image. Very original and very much conveying childhood. The bubbles are gorgeous and the cloudscape is the perfect foil for them. In a refined subtle way this conveys the exuberance of childhood. Well done. Prelim: 8. Will revisit. Journey
My only drawback is that all the bubbles have a jagged outline. Don't know whether that is to be expected since I have never shot bubbles but it detracts somewhat from the beauty of the bubbles. Final: 8 Journey