Lunada Bay
by daysez

Comment:
Almost a perfect 10. I love the picture. The couple could be anyone, the sky puts off just enough color not to be to detracting. The grass frames the people and the light reflecting off the grass is what puts this photo into the very special catagory. I ill definitely add this to my favorites. Why not a 10? The small patch of green at the foot of the man. Was it sun glare. A shame you could not touch it up. Good Luck 9.95

Frozen Forest
by karmat

Comment:
With the right light, even artificial that ice could have really dazzled the viewer. Good luck,JG

Clinging Fog
by Ricky Cleave

Comment:
This is not the most striking of all the pictures but it is one of my favorites because I appreciate the photographer who shoots in light that is not perfect. Great composition! It's starts with the tree, then your eye drops to the muddy tracks, which leads to the hilly background which takes you back to the tree. All this surrounds the fog making it a great picture. I hope everyone appreciates it as much as I did.

Land, Sea, and Sky
by kposey

Comment:
I don't know if you could have gotten closer to your subject, but much of the foreground is very distracting to the beauty of this picture. There is also several things on the right which are distracting as well. The lighting could also have been better. I'm sure you were trying to capture the sunset with the masts as your point of interest which is very eye catching and a beautiful sight. Good luck.

Light House
by Turco

Comment:
Great point of view, composition, depth of field...If you would have pushed your ASA/ISO to it's max, then you could have shot at a faster speed which would have stopped the moving of the grass, and you still would have been able to use your F22/F26 aperture setting to have the depth of field you wanted. Excellent eye, good luck, JG

Ice House : Electric Blue
by HBunch

Comment:
Beautiful color, striking image, and the title and name of the band meets the challenge perfectly. Two things which might have improved the image...1st, photographs because of their very nature are flat. If you could have made the picture look three dimensional some how that may of helped. 2nd, If you were to have off-set the center of the electric flow, instead of having it in the middle, you would force the viewer's eye to travel around the picture more instead of just going to the center. Normally the longer someone looks at a picture the higher they will grade it. My suggestion would be to experiment on your own to see if these suggestions would improve the image in your own eyes. If so, then hopefully I was a help. Good luck in the future. JG

"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" -Elton John
by Mrs. POTUS

Comment:
What a beautiful palette of colors that you were able to capture. The rich blues in the foreground and the fire orange of the sky makes you want to be there. Technically... The composition of your photograph is excellent. Breaking the photo into thirds, with the blue pools as foreground, the dark area surrounding the couple makes for a great middleground and the sky a great background. The twosome, are in one of the hot spots, which ties the whole picture together. So why didn't it win? My guess, and only a guess, would be the image of the two people might have been a little small and lost in the overall picture. None-the-less, the work is something you can be proud of and keep in your favorites file.

Beach Boys - Surfin' USA
by byetko

Comment:
You've just taken first place and I'm suppose to critique this picture...One of the things I tell my class is, " If everyone was to take a picture of sunsets, or hands or what ever, only one or two would reach out and grab you as an outstanding picture." Yet everyone had the same topic to shoot, so why are some pictures just better than others? Composition, how the image fits on your paper, that's the key. Take away the person with the board in the foreground and your picture is not as good. Take away the pier and your picture would have been in the middle of the pack. What I'm saying is, Yes! you saw a beautiful sunset, but you also did a great job of composing your picture. Great job! You deserved the Blue Ribbon. In your photograph information you put down you shot the picture at 1/25th of a second, was that a typo? Should it have been 1/125? Just wondering.

Tulips from Amsterdam
by johnmk

Comment:
The flowers are beautiful, the idea excellent, but three things bother me about this picture. (1) The flowers are bunched together. (2)The majority of the flower are on the same level. (3)The lighting on the flowers, although good, could have been better. If you would have taken a few of the flowers out of the vase and placed the remaining ones at varying heights the viewers eye would have moved around the picture more. As it is, the eye follows the line of flowers down and off the page and we miss some of the intricate beauty that you captured. As far as the lighting is concerned, I assume you used available light. If so then it becomes even more important that you thin out the flowers for maximum use of the light. Pleased do not feel this critique is a cut-down of your work. You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this photo and I,m just trying to make suggestions that might help in the future. JG

Blue Comet Blues
by lcamargo

Comment:
Creativity is seldom rewarded, because the average person does not understand and cannot see anything but what lies before their nose. Your work is simple, yet elegant. I, for one, appreciate the thought behind the work almost as much as the work itself. Don't be discouraged because of others lack of creative processes. Continue and let those of us that appreciate what you do enjoy. :-)JG