When love hurts
by Jyoti

Comment:
Psychic pain can be as profound as physical pain and it can be more debilitating than all but the worst physical pain. This photo captures the psychic pain of a young person very well. The lighting is strong and moody. The photo is nicely cropped. The subjects large and expressive eyes are perfectly framed by the rest of the composition. The photo does have a distraction, that wedge of unexplained material that blocks off the subject's mounth and cheek. Is it a chair? A window frame? A doorstop? A cello? This leads us away from the subject

Church
by giega

Comment:
This church is an architectural gem. The subtle lighing almost totally lacking in shadows helps us see all the details. The vast swath of grass and the looming mountains place the church in context. If there were a way to move the mountains away from the roofline of the church, I think this would improve the photo. This could have been done if a much longer lens had been used - or a much shorter one. Of course, we cannot tell whether these changes would have introduced other, more disturbing flaws.

There is a kind of stasis created by placing the church in the center third of the photo top to bottom, but this is counteracted by placing it in the right half of the field.

This is a striking photo; I hope it gets lots of attention.

Needle Eclipse
by Zoomdak

Comment:
It's hard to decide that the reflection of a thing is more photographically interesting than the thing itself. And such a decision is drawn into question the more stuff there is that is to interfere with a perfect specular reflection - waves, sand, detritus, what have you. In this photo the risk brings the reward and then some. It is a drammatic, colorful, and serene shot. Very atmospheric.

Grand Canyon Raven
by canyoncat

Comment:
Nevermore. This is my resolution each time I try to photograph the Grand Canyon. I expect that the real beauty is captured only when one gets a little way into the thing, by foot, mule, or helicopter. In any case, If one considers this to be a photo of the raven with the Grand Canyon as a scenic backdrop, the photo seems much better. But this raises the question of cropping. What if the phot were cropped severely so that the sky was no longer in the photo and the outside 10-20% of the left and right edges were gone. What if the raven sat on a 'rule of thirds' intersection? What if a longer lens had been used and the canyon had more bokeh (Or this were done in Photoshop) What if we boosted the saturation so the oranges and violets of the canyon complement the black silhouette of the bird? They are just questions. I like the photo and I imagine if I took it I'd be trying some of these ideas in Photoshop. But then I have all day...

Farm House
by Tycho

Comment:
Yo ho, the terrace! I love this photo: the way the tree matches the paint of the house, the way the roof texture matches the stony surroundings, the way the curved shadows of the terraces lead your eye through the photo. I'd have cropped out the white blob on the left, which would have gotten rid of some pesky power lines in the corner. And I suppose I might have trimmed off a bit of the top as well, but then maybe the house would not sit on the 'rule of thirds' location...

In any case, it's a good shot; I hope more people get to enjoy it.

Mendenhall's Twin
by NovaTiger

Comment:
It occurs to me that the difference between this and a very good photograph is just a few tweeks away with photoshop. Of course the great photographer might take this with the advantages offered by a still morning or evening - the mirror finish to the water, the unusual lighting and color; but maybe a few adjustments to the Curves in Photoshop would improve the contrast and increase saturation. Alternatively, it might look better in black and white - its the lines and textures that make this photo, not the colors.

Keep taking pictures! This is a good start.

Waldo Was Here
by Gringo

Comment:
Hmm, in order to satisfy the technical requirements of the competition we introduce an element that, once we know it is there, will distract us and ruin the effect of an otherwise strong photograph. Not sure this is a winning long-term strategy.

Hard to imagine taking this photo without getting the knees wet. The warm sunset lighting, the round boulders, and the ultrawide angle lense are a formula for success in this sort of shot. And it worked. Nice shot.

Boathouses
by Warby

Comment:
The subject is highly original. The shapes are very interesting. The lighting is ideal. And the textures of the wood and grass clearly make this rustic setting remarkable. It's a really strong shot.

While having the sea in the background adds a sense of place to the photo, I found the additional horizontal lines it offered both cluttered and confused by their close proximity to the tops of the houses. It's a quibble; and I'm not sure there could have been a way to fix this without ruining the shot.

Heat
by DogAngel

Comment:
The curved tracks filled with water draw us into the fire. This and the strong color make this a good shot. But it seems to me that the problem with the photo is the blob that is impossible to recognize as a child, or as any animate being. It's hard to recognize, even knowing what it is. Finally, I imagine that the photo could be made stronger with the left eighth or tenth cropped off - that uninteresting black column of space. Still, dispite its several flaws, it is a strong photo.

Advancing storm
by nico_blue

Comment:
When does it cross from being a photo to being a photo-derived work of art? It's a subjective question but I think this one has crossed the line. At first glance the colors are interesting, drammatic, striking. But seconds later we stop thinking about the picture and start thinking about the steps taken to make it. Then we start wondering whether the sky really would have been better without that great blob of red. Or with less of that inky blue. And then, finally, the chartreuse of the grass begins to grate. And we begin to wonder what it was we saw in the photo in that first second. That was my experience, anyway. For the first second or so, it was a real kick.