Drink Milk?
by rj324

Comment:
This is a stunning photograph and I STILL think it should have won!

Sunset on Lake Ontario
by firstduchess

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club - Sorry to be late with my review. Sometimes life intervenes.

This is an extraordinary photo! My first instinct is to only write "GASP!" and leave it at that. But probalby you want more words. Since it is perfect in my eyes, I can only tell you why I like it so much. I can't offer any suggestions for improvement.

This image brings to mind the very tightly controlled japanese gardens where even the stones and dirt are raked into lines to compliment the plantings. You have created a wild version of that idea. Had you raked the snow and sand and waves and clouds into that perfect pattern you could not have made it more precise. I suppose those are tire tracks, but WOW, they are lovely as they snake from right to left. Yes, the movement in the picture is all right to left, rather than the more common left to right. The wind blows left, the lines point left, the bouys are left, the snowbank piles up left. Nice!

You have three elements here: foreground, mid ground and back ground and each is exquisite in it's own right, But you make them tie together and compliment each other so the sum is even more than the perfect parts. Foreground: swirlies, moving grasses, muted tans, absolutley in focus. Mid ground: Ocean - white caps mirror the snow banks, flecks of white pick up the snow and clouds, muted blues, bouys as a point on interest (in the rule of thirds place, too). Background: Mirrors the fore and mid grounds, stripe of tan stripe pf blue. Now the tan is narrow, like the ocean and the sky is wide like the beach. The swirls are in the blue clouds. Gorgeous.

Textures! WOW! look at all those textures - grass, sand, snow, waves, clouds. They all work together without competing or getting cluttered! I can HEAR this scene, whoosh wind, swish little waves, swoosh draw me in.


I love the colors, they all go together so well, tans and blues, such soft colors, such sharp focus. I love the muted light. Sunset? It must have been FREEZING yet the picture has a warmish inviting feel despite the snow. I like the two little dabs of man made colors, red and blue.

Okay, I have a pet peeve about tilted pictures and I agree with the commenter who said the horizon is just a hair tilted. There! I found something to improve.

Message edited by author 2003-01-28 12:11:21.

Winter Woodland
by SteveZ

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club. This view could have been taken out my back window so I am partial to it. I didn't vote on the landscape challenge so I can only give you a score on hind sight. I think it is a five, which is an average score. Looks like a lot of people agreeed with me. It has the makings of a great picture but it fell short.

I love the colors in this photo. (Someday I'll ask you how you do it because all my snow is blue.). It is halfway between a sepia and a black and white. You made a wise choice to leave it in color. The almost monotone adds to the feeling of quiet and remoteness. No man made colors here. The slightly pinkish tone makes it feel like twilight is approaching. It is the white, however, which ties the image together, the white patch of sky mirrored by the white foreground snow and all snowy branches linking them visually. The two birches in the front are nicely matched in color.

The composition is good- Maybe too symetrical? I don't think so. The symetrical left right arrangement makes a seductive tunnel in the middle. It sucks the viewer right into it. I can almost feel the whoosh of movement as I go into the scene. And what is at the end of the tunnel? Nothing but more trees, as it should be. I like that there isn't a light spot or a clearing or anything at all in the central point, even though the viewers eye is drawn there. There is an effective use of the rule of thirds here. Both birches are in the thirds position left riight and that elusive "end of the tunnel" is on the up. down thirds line, but centered left right. I like the snow diagonals, the tree top Vs (also pointing to that vanishing point) and lots of V brances. All the upright trunks in the mid ground make a texture that contrast with the feathery tree tops in the back ground.

Howevver! What is the black blob in the middle? I want to get out my snow shovel and cover it up. It is a major blemish. It ruins the color balance, it is too dark. It spoils the expanse of forground snow. It is too horizontal (althought tilted) the only dark horizontal line in the whole scene. It is unidentifiable, people (especially our voters) like to know what they are looking at.

The focus also could be crisper for the scene. Perhaps you meant the soft focus to give a dreamy effect but I don't think it works. I also notice that on your last submission (mr. toothless) you got critisized for over sharpening so maybe you were reluctant to give it a try.

Oh wait! Could that be a downed tree? that nice diagonal line? and the blob is the side of it? Hmmm., now I know what it is, but it is still ugly.

So....get out the snow shovel (or better yer, your clone tool) and cover up that tree with snow. Sharpen up the focus just a little and you will have a WINNER of a picture. It's almost there.

Please remember that this is just the opinion of one person. I'm sorry to be critical because I know how COLD it was out there last week.

Message edited by author 2003-01-24 11:07:17.

Mohonk
by davissprague

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club- First I have to say that I know nothing, absolutely nothing about infra red photography. Since this is your first submission I don't know if it is your favorite method. The critique club computer assigns pictures randomly so perhaps someday, on a future submission, someone who knows infra red will review you.

This is New York, right? I know what this coniferous/deciduous landscpe looks like in the winter - bleak. And I also know how cold it was last week. You were brave to get out there at all. I totally disagree with the people who thought this might look better in color, blue and green and grey and white are not so interesting. At first glance it looks almost south western with that jutting rock formation. I think they were expecting some red clay or something. We forget that the East Coast was shaped by the same dramatic geological forces as the rest of the country because it is all covered with trees. Your picture portray a vast, lonely, emptyness that we don't associate with New York.

Your choice of black and white (and probably infra red, but I can't say) empasizes the Earth below and the Sky above, And deemphasizes the trees and bushes that try to cover it up. your sky of course is stunning, no one could have missed that. I like the way that the clouds are mirrored on the land in the corresponding patches of snow.

I like the compositional lines, the Z shape is a nice one for the eye to travel. Leads right to that pinnacle on the bluff. And a matching smaller peak of snow at the other end of the Z is a nice balance. What ever that pinnicle is, it looks man made. It even looks like a religious point of focus - saying "Look what God made".
However, I'm not religeous so I will accept it as an awesome visual point, like a beacon in the wilderness.

Out of focus? I don't see that, the blurry look is just all this bare tree, right? the sky is in focus, the ridge is in focus. My first thought was that this is the wrong venue for a picture like this. Small format, low jpg size doesn't do it justice. It wants to be a BIG print. I seems to vast a landscape to fit on my little screen. Not saying you should crop it, because the compostion is REALLY nice. I'm just thinking it might have scored better if it was less ambitious. 95th place is fine, doesn't make it any less of a photo! It's the same picture no matter where it places.

On the infra red issue, I will repeat what another commenters said. "if this is an infrared image, which is my guess at the moment, then I know firsthand how tricky it is getting things in your image sharp. Infrared has a different focusing point than the one given by your camera". DPC is a bunch of amateurs. I wonder how many even recognized that it was infra red?

Forgot my disclaimer - Please remeber that this is only one persons. far from expert, opinion

Message edited by author 2003-01-23 09:58:32.

Mohonk
by davissprague

Comment:
Uh Oh - I think I'm out of my league here. I know nothing about infared. I have been assigned this photo to review by the critique club computer. I will do my best. I'll be back, it takes me a day to digest a picture.

Tumble Dry on Low
by DougPaz

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club - As I promised, I am back to review your photo. I'm sorry that this is the picture I have to critique, cute as it is, because some of your other work is so stunning. I think the lady in the faucet is the best picture ever posted here. I loved the belly button fisher too.

This is an adorable picture (adorable kid to, but you only get partial credit there). And of course it is funny. The poor kids looks dizzy. I hope you didn't really spin him. Perhaps the picture looks a bit too posed with the socks on his arm. I think the white thing in front could look more like a "blankie" Like you washed the wrong item. Don't tell him that, he looks too old for one of those.

Your composition is nice and simple - Both boy and the darkest spot in the picture (dryer cavern) are in the "thirds" position. All the lines are straight except for the kid and let's call it his blankie. Many of the diagonals point straight at the kid, see the lines of dots on the dryer door, and the baseboard and the blankie. The focus is perfectly sharp as it should be with a squeeky clean kid. Also the color composition is lovely. Everything but the kid is muted beige tones, but he is pink and blue. Even his hair matches the beiges. This helps to unclutter the picture, not that it is cluttered. My next point is how uncluttered it is. Everything that is there belongs there. You paid careful attention to everything you included, either in set up or cropping, probably both. That is your trademark, the careful set up, attention to detail and lack of extraneous visual distractions. Maybe that's why the only fault I can find with this picture is that it looks set up, not quite candid enough for the subject. The sparks in his eyes are great too.

Although this is a expertly done photo, it probably scored lower that it's quality would indicate because it does not have a universal appeal. "Dad takes picture of cute kid, mildly amusing" would be the first reaction. And with DPC voting it's that frst reaction that counts. There is nothing here that anyone could score down, nothing techinically wrong. But it takes a minute or so to sort out the precision here. Keep this one for the family album and don't try to enter it in the same gallery show as the faucet lady.

PS. Someone said that the color balance was off, hands were too pink. I have looked at this on three dfferent monitors, and yes, on my cheapo monitor at home, they were too pink and he had lipstick on too. But here at work the colors are just right. Taught me a lesson!!! My editing from home has looked awful. I won't submit from that monitor again.

and the disclaimer: Please remember that this critique is just the opinion of one far from expert viewer.

Message edited by author 2003-01-22 09:37:59.

Crossroad Traffic
by juhaseila

Comment:
This is personally my third favorite...But it is my pick to finish first. 10

Loading Only
by Gotcha

Comment:
This is my second favorite! Still a ten though!

Only in Boston can you be heading North AND South at the same time!
by svital

Comment:
I hate the part on 95 north that is 93 south too.

.....road side silo
by undieyatch

Comment:
Whoa a twofer- Did you put this in both challenges?