Barn@Rte 40 (Small).jpg
by RayEthier

Comment:
Sometimes a blown area works. I think this may be a good example. Clearly you have found a topic you like to shoot (barns) and your skill from repeatedly shooting the same subject is showing through. The horizon is tilted, which is easily fixed. Sometimes the shot is on a hill so the image is level, but the horizon is tilted anyway. I will usually look to see if a falsely levelled horizon works. In this case I would have keyed on one of the edges of the building and made it vertical. Anyway, the centered nature of the highlight works because it's balanced on both sides by the structures. Centering the area of interest (or at least where the eye is drawn since the blown area isn't necessarily "interesting") works well when you can provide symmetry. This picture was custom made for a creche to be placed in the middle. I bet that's exactly what you were thinking too... ;)

Portland Headlight
by RayEthier

Comment:
A wonderful scene. This is, of course, made for HDR which was probably only in someone's imagination in 2005. It would allow the sky to not dominate the eye's attention with that bright area. A longer aspect ratio would also be helpful in this one and I'd consider cropping to almost remove the entire pebble beach. Finally, I personally clone things out like the boat on the right as distracting elements. I tend to favor a clean canvas. Still, you picked an iconic location to photograph.

Rooms With a View
by RayEthier

Comment:
Here's another shot with some promise. A seaside shot with lines of bungalos (or whatever you want to call them) is classic. I think one of the things that let the picture down was the choice of aperture. f/3.5 caused the most focus (probably by camera's choice) to be on the roof of the closest cabin. We then lose focus on other potential subjects in the shot. The nicely contrasted blue bathing suit. The red chairs. The sunbather on the beach. My eye would like it all in focus so I can explore the scene. Finally I'd like a wider aspect ratio to help emphasize the line of cabins.

Circle of Friends
by RayEthier

Comment:
I like starting around the 5.5 range because those are usually pictures that have promise, but lacked something to put them over the top. The scene here is obviously interesting as well as colorful. Overall I think the picture lacks some contrast (probably mainly in the sky). I tend to like to burn the edges of shots like this to really zero in on the subject, although here you have two comepting subjects. Although I wasn't there and so don't know what's outside the picture, I would have thought about swinging around to the left for two purposes: 1) remove the background people who detract from the ambiance and 2) get more of the subject's faces. I can see why you chose it for Best of the Year. The scene definitely had promise.

Bellevue Skyline
by RayEthier

Comment:
Bellevue?! When were you in Bellevue? This building was one of the first I took pictures of way back when I had a EOS Rebel. I went to Bellevue Christian from 7th to 9th grade. This comment is free. ;) The reflection is nice, but you need to, of course, lose the building at the bottom.

Final Frontier
by bspurgeon

Comment:
I'll end on this shot. The sky is awesome and lends a real sci-fi feel. It's almost as if the building is a large spaceship hovering over a clouded planet. You certainly understand diagonals (as mentioned in my last comment) which is great. This image wants me to imagine a story and explore the possibilities.

Balance
by bspurgeon

Comment:
Excellent choice to crop the top half of the girl off. It heightens the tension of the image. The rope is a great leading line between the two vertical pillars. Our eye naturally stops at the ball and then either backs up or skips on to the girl's legs. This is a good example of where a serendipitous composition (you didn't place the posts, ball, rope) really adds to the shot. I'm enjoying your frequent choice of B&W, which is something I lack in my own portfolio. An excellent take on the exuberance (and fears) of youth.

Something unstoppable set into motion.
by bspurgeon

Comment:
I'm not sure I can agree with the interpretation of the lyric. I can potentially make a connection, but it's far from clear. Of course the title of the song works better than the line chosen. ;) As a landscape, this one lets me down. I feel that too much of the canvas is dominated by the rocky shore. This can normally be good, but in this case the rocks are too similar (yet not similar enough) to give us much interest. I enjoy the left half of the sky, but the right half is, of course, a bit on the blown side. Because of the rocks letting us down, the crop is also off. I would have tried cutting the shot somewhere below the reflective pools.

No Sun Needed
by bspurgeon

Comment:
So I thought I'd head to the middle of your portfolio to find my first comment. After looking at a dozen I stopped here. The natural pose and expression is what makes this images (like you could pose a toddler...). The sand encrusted leg gives us both a candid and snapshot feel. The subdued selective desat works for me. You caught either some artifact or bad bokeh in the tops of the trees which distracts me slightly. In the end it is a shot, perhaps that means the most to the parents who can see all the personality of the child come out in the slightest facial contortion, but it's still an effort that rises above the simple picture of a kid.

New hope - the ultimate return of Unicorn
by william88

Comment:
I knew that mountain looked familiar... :)