Untitled
by Tej

Comment:
Marvellous image - I like the way the 'bokeh' has 2 levels of depth to it.
Composition and colour pallette are really effective - (i had this one in the ribbons)

White beauty
by arpita

Comment:
Really stunning - excellent work, well done.

Autumnal Fern
by Simms

Comment:
Very worthy - a beautiful image.
Excellent - well done.

Dead Man's Hand
by Traff

Comment:

Originally posted by slugsgomoo: Very nice, but isn't the dead man's hand a full house (2 eights and 3 aces)?

The original inspiration for the image came from Bob Dylan's Ramblin Gamblin Willie where the hand is described as "Aces backed with Eights" - which would indeed suggest a full house - but when I Googled it was consistently 2 pairs (Aces & Eights) and the fifth card varied depending on who was telling the story.
I really liked the Bill Hickok legend (there are several variations) where he had thrown in his fifth card and was waiting for a replacement when he was shot, so the fifth card was never known. I represented that here by showing it face down...
Maybe I should have titled it Wild Bill's Dead Man's Hand :)

Message edited by author 2006-11-01 07:28:39.

Boatmen in a Song
by kiran

Comment:
Even I'd have to acknowledge it DNMC and I like to be liberal on that (motion blur is not boke) but... what the heck this is an absolute killer image.
Maybe now that the challenge is over you could consider cloning out the bright highlights on the second boatman, they kind of intrude on the painterly effect for me. In an ideal world I guess the figure right at front would have been a boatman too - just a touch of a red stripe on his shirt would have really set the image off - but I'm being really picky now. Great work - its position in the challenge is not a reflection of its true worth.

011_11.JPG
by Sheryll

Comment:
Really like this image - isolating the neck and head against that wonderful background is very effective. You've got good exposure on the neck - holding detail in the whites. Focus is maybe (technically) a little soft but I actually think it works here, it gives a sense of movement and echoes the background.
The only thing I'd suggest is a slightly tighter crop to the top and right. On the top the very tip of the feathers is currently cropped off - that looks like an error, but if you trim just a little more so that the neck just arcs out of the picture and then crop similarly from the right so the edge of the neck also arcs out of the picture it looks more deliberate, and tightens the 'abstract' feel of the image by removing the 'dead' space just behind the neck.
Oh yes, and they're swans. Swan's never like being called geese. Never say it in ear shot. They take offence easily.

Praying Player
by jstnknight

Comment:
Just my observations - take what you need and bin the rest...
Would praying not be a pre-match rather than post-match activity? Well, I'm a Brit and I'm not sure about the protocol here - so I'll give you the benfit of the doubt on that one. :)
I like the crop taking out part of his boot - just saying that 'cos I'm guessing you may get picked up on it by others. I'm not saying they're wrong but for me it adds to the off-centred feel and gives it a bit of edge somehow.
Think I might consider a slight crop from the bottom just to remove the white line bottom right (distracting once you've spotted it).
Not sure what the partial saturation achieves here - for me it takes away from the overall mood of the image since I notice the team logo more than the activity of the player.
Nice exposure and the patterns in the grass work well in directing attention towards the players bowed head.

No More Peanuts & Cracker Jacks
by thegrandwazoo

Comment:
Just my observations - take what you need and bin the rest...
Bit of a literal interpretation, in the sense I don't feel any emotion here... maybe that was your point, end of the game and all the emotion has drained out.
The composition widthwise feels good - the structure is nicely balanced and the eye flows around the stadium - I'd consider cropping up from the bottom about 50% of the shadow area though - it's kinda dead space and it's draining the impact of the structure for me.

Youth Football
by sdrawkcab

Comment:
Just my opinions - take what's useful, bin the rest...
Composition feels weak - 50/50 split of land/sky feels static... greater use of the rope barrier (ie get in MUCH closer and a lower PoV) could have helped lead the eye into the image more....
Also can't find any point of focus here - and the lighting is very flat.
On the plus side - those clouds are really dramatic really ominous feeling - maybe you could have made them more of a feature of the overall image.
I'd suggest getting in closer and looking for more dramatic/dynamic angles.

Lets celebrate my victory
by Simpa

Comment:
Just my observations - take what you need and bin the rest...
Kinda doesn't meet the challenge for me... without the title there'd be no indication that a sporting event had taken place... as it's a victory celebration maybe you could have included a trophy of some kind within the image.. or a baseball glove etc.(?)