Obsession
by sacredspirit

Comment:
I think I got it.

Is it the view from the Phantom of the Opera on a Rose that he wishes he could give to Christine? Obsession. Gotcha.

WOO. Do I get a Prize if that's it?

Speech? Uhm, I'd like to thank the Academy and oh, yeah, Sherri1209 for helping a bit with the concept.

You got your focal point right. The rose looks crisp. I wonder if you could have had more view of the subject though. This would likely have involved moving closer to the mask. Looks to me like that would have made it more difficult to get as much of the mask in and have people recognize the mask, but perhaps it would be worth it for more of the rose?

Typhoon Talim
by eschelar

Comment:
Typhoon Talim was a real typhoon that happened in Taiwan just a few hours after Katrina hit New Orleans. Taiwan is not below sea level, so it was not in a position to be so radically affected. Taiwan has had a number of heavy typhoons this year which has wiped out close to 90% of local produce for the year's productive season. Talim blew only 15 km/h slower than Katrina. The eye came straight across residential areas and just before hitting Taipei, the eye COLLAPSED and within minutes REFORMED 200km away in TaiZhong, another major residential district. This kicked things up a major notch for them. My friend who lives there said his next-door neighbor's roof was torn off and thrown down in the street, destroying 3 cars.

This picture is not trying to compare anything to the devastation in Katrina. The situations are totally different. Nonetheless, Talim was a real typhoon and caused real damage.

Taiwan typically gets around 15 typhoons a year. Each year is different as to how many of these are serious. A month or so ago, we got one with winds steady up to 235 km/h. Serious typhoons cause major areas of the country to shut down. Typhoon Talim shut down the whole country for two days with winds steady at 185km/h.

It is odd that as I am writing this, there is yet another typhoon which is striking a glancing blow from the south and causing heavy rain and mild winds.

A couple of people mentioned that they didn't know if this was a real typhoon or not.

On The Dancefloor
by 42mm

Comment:
After the challenge. I noticed that a lot of people didn't like your background. It is true it is busy, but I noticed that the colours and patterns actually match that of those on the spider.

This is an excellent shot.

Rays of Love
by SDW

Comment:
Wow. Seriously spectacular.

I remember you mentioning that you might have to go away for a bit due to some personal life difficulties. This is a heck of a picture to take a sabbatical on.

Shoot as much as possible, you have great skill.

Understanding Comes Slowly
by shutterphunk

Comment:
Yeah! Gotta love white guys writing shufa. I haven't practiced in a long while either. This guy is GOOD. Nice table too.

I guess he knows his hand position is off for Chinese style writing. I don't know what the Japanese influence has been on it though. Proof is in the pudding though.

I would have liked it even better if he was writing characters that had more direct meaning to your title too.

Edit: looks like there is no support for chinese characters in posts...

Message edited by author 2005-09-19 22:14:04.

Thought Overgrowth
by cycomerlin14

Comment:
Just thought I would post a slightly further thought.

You will notice that the hair is all slightly uniform in its dispersion. This is not a strong call to the word branch. When was the last time you saw a tree like that. Typically, trolls hair is very easy to bunch and gather into individual tufts.

If you had done that, you may have caught the theme a little more closely and merited some more positive votes.

Beauty
by drugead

Comment:
Well I think Canon deserves most of the credit on this one. Auto settings. Macro button pressed. Shutter snapped.

Nice flower.

Too bad you couldn't have taken the time to control that little lighting issue that put all the distracting shadows all through the picture. Or perhaps you didn't know how to do that.

I thought you might appreciate some quality critical opines about your pic. After all, you know better than most that it's the photographer that makes the picture, not the camera. Right?

Once upon the time, I was bright white and very young...
by drugead

Comment:
Agreement with other poster. I can't remember the last time I sat down one evening and cracked a cold one open and just sat there appreciating the raw beauty of molded plastic in the highly functional and stunningly artistic mode we commonly call "chair".

Truly surpasses good photography to the level of yawn.

I know that you are particular to good comments, having read your other well thought out and carefully worded critique.

I've used the A75. It can do better than this. Can you?

At the End of the Branch - One Perfect Rose
by Tuckersmom

Comment:
I saw this pic on the page just as I had to go to work and stop voting. I wish I had taken the time to give it just one more 9 or 10.

This picture is REALLY gorgeous.

I totally disagree with all the people who can't read titles or think for more than a few seconds to get the connection with branch. The main subject of the picture is definitely related to a branch. The title brings it together.

I definitely think there could be just a hair more contrast and I think there is a bit of noise or something on the right. Maybe it's just my LCD screen, but the pic looks better as I drop the brightnest and increase the contrast.

I think it is noteworthy that you got more tens than you got nines and you only got 10 less 10's than the winning photo.

Please keep works like this coming.

No Worries in a World
by sacredspirit

Comment:
Another picture that I felt was excellent and should have been in the top 10, but got bad votes because people just couldn't see what was in front of them.

I am sad that people felt that the first thing they saw was the kid so they couldn't make the connection. Apparently a number of people can't read titles.

Sorry this didn't get higher. It's a super pic.