Duck Pond Chaos
by train

Comment:
Sally ... I am disappointed that this interesting and instructive photograph didn't do better. Judging by the comments, it seems that the problem was that it was an unlikely subject for a movie. I agree with that, but this image is a better photograph than at least 150 of the shots that finished ahead of it, and you should have got credit for that. If memory serves, the date this was taken was actually the opening day of the 2006 NZ duck season? Had I known that, my 8 would have been a 9. And no popcorn required.

Demonic Pirate's Conquest
by aznym

Comment:
Quote:
I see a puppy, a hand, a fish climbing up the puppy's head; another fish moving up towards the puppy's right eye and one big fish with it's mouth wide open on the right :)

I couldn't think of a good title.

Check, check, check, check and check. I looked for more (there's sure to be lots more there), but these damned fish kept getting in the way and spoiling my view of all the other hidden stuff. Interesting objet trouvé.

As for the title: Discarded Piscatorial Cardigan.
Obvious, really ... I can't believe you missed it!

Kurhaus
by hanneke

Comment:
Yep, that 11mm lens has a charm all of its own ... alarming verticals. The light I do like, and the most interesting aspect is really what's not there; any people! This is a lovely space, magnificently lit, and yet everyone is at the pub or the football.

Velocity
by Keith Maniac

Comment:
Velo. City.
Sorry; such a bad pun.

This is deceptively simple photograph. The framing and composition is graphically beautiful in its own right, but this is also one of the very best cycling images I have seen. The feeling of speed is totally convincing, not the least reason for which is the fact that the roadway, severely tilted like this, becomes a frightening, uncompromising velodrome! (I love track cycling). It's a brilliant photograph.

Message edited by author 2006-05-18 21:54:42.

Bulwarks
by Keith Maniac

Comment:
This is a very musical image; it diminishes smoothly to a Pete Townshend power chord. Glissando to Smash! Like in "Who ... are you?"

Doubting Patriotic Convictions
by bvoi

Comment:
Without question the most artistically ambitious photograph in the challenge. Dealing with the Abu Ghraib affair for most people involves an uncomfortable moral and ethical collision. The views of the extremists at both poles (the vehemently anti-invasion and the unreservedly pro-invasion) are essentially irrelevant here; it's the position of those in the middle that is interesting, and that's exactly what your image is about. The dilemma; can one maintain commitment to an honorable entity when it employs dishonorable methods? It's the old "end justifying the means" question, and it has no easy answer. I think you have represented that dilemma brilliantly here with the visual symbolism of the distorted and tortured flag as a backdrop to the similarly mistreated prisoner. And of course there's also your title, provided for the imaginatively-challenged viewer. I have no idea how you made this image, and no real interest in finding out either ... it's just very refreshing to see photography used with such ambition and to such effect. 10.

Driven Past Crazy
by Jutilda

Comment:
This is terrific. It has great lighting and composition, and the post processing is jagged-edged (i.e. just right). Maybe the most instructive thing is how much more convincing it is to not show the face, rather than to do the conventional thing and try to simulate a suitably manic and tortured facial expression. It's a fact well understood by exotic dancers; what you don't reveal can be much more stimulating and memorable than what you do expose.
I like this photo very much, and I'd no doubt like the movie, too. 9.

Escaping the Rainbow
by dahkota

Comment:
Didn't vote (yet again) but I did sneak a peek and one of the things I saw was this. I thought it might be JPR! I'm so dumb; I did not initially make the rotate call and spent a moment wondering what kind of structure this could be, and why it had lights along one side. I even wondered about the woman standing on tippy-toes, flattened against the wall! The clever title held all the clues; I was just slow.
The effect is to suggest a sort of sideways vertigo. It's another cerebral Dahkota photograph that makes some demands of the viewer (nearly too many for me, evidently). And it's not too dark on my 20" i-Mac, although the histogram makes interesting viewing; if the white point is moved to the "correct" position, the images loses some of its enigma, and so some of its point. Better just where it is.

Del Primo Christ (The First Christ)
by AlexSaberi

Comment:
I didn't know there'd been more than one. I'm torn; it's a technically superb photograph, it's convincingly staged (and cleverly inverted in orientation), but for all its visual impact it still has a phony, theatrical look about it. Of course, that doesn't make it a bad image, in this or any other context. Maybe it's because this Christ looks so much like an Australian fast bowler (that's cricket) called Jason "Dizzy" Gillespie that I just can't take him seriously as a messiah. It would certainly make a very effective movie poster, where its undemanding and unequivocal qualities would be an advantage. 8.

Deep Penetration Comet - (1956., Disaster, B&W, Director unknown)
by goc

Comment:
I want to dislike this and dismiss it, but I just can't. It's really so awful that it's good, and I'm sure that the movie it's promoting would be every bit as wonderful, too. One of those made-in-a-weekend art house classics, probably with Samuel L Jackson working for free in a supporting role. I'd see it, for sure. 6.