there is hope.jpg
by redmoon

Comment:
The stairs leading up to Waterloo Bridge, South Bank, National Theatre side of the bridge, I believe :-) Nearly shot it myself a few days ago - in reference to John's shot as mentioned. Like the way you've frmed it with the diagonal edge of the staircase.

Waiting For His Turn
by Neuferland

Comment:
Damn, I can't believe some the voting on this challenge: it seems to be a feature of these challenges where the subject title is entirely a matter of personal opinion, that the group dynamic seems to rest on a very very tight, very very obvious interpretation. I think perhaps that is to do with folks wanting to be able to carve out only a very few shots from the mass, it being much easier to simply score a shot low for misinterpretation than to have to think about what score it actually merits. But I'm guessing - and you'll see from my entry to this challenge that I have no more idea than you how to follow their rules.

But I like this shot: particularly the exposure. Again, it works against the 'accepted' strictures of the site (something along the lines of there must be a white point, and a black point, and your colours must be vibrant, not muted). what you've shown here is a real sensitivity to tone, and to the way those tones make up this composition. None of these colours jump and scream at us, no high drama in the treeline, nor whay sky is visible; no eye-catching effect of light, or clever post-processing. In short, a scene that many would percieve as a simple, ordinary snapshot ... but I see a great deal of care in this: in the framing of the child against the grass, and in the balance of the dirt and the cages, but most particularly in your capture and use of that late evening light - a delicate thing to handle, and mostly overplayed, but here just balanced correctly. There's nothing to really place it at that time of day, other than a sense I get from the shot - so I suppose I might be making it up. But I like that feel.

It doesn't yell out waiting, however, not to me, and despite your title, and will have suffered a lot for that reason, and for it being a shot of a child. That care and depth of tonality will be lost on most voters who won't give your image more than around 5 seconds (as applies to most of us, I believe - just a part of the format), and many will have passed it by simply as a family snapshot, and dismissed it with a 5, or less.

I think they're missing a little gem, but I've spent a fair bit of time looking at it.

Oh, and I fear the horizon line isn't straight - and that will have hurt the shot another bit more.

Some of the reasons why i think it scored where it did, anyway.

Reflections
by jmritz

Comment:
I spent some time working on a very similar shot for this challenge, and I didn't submit it for pretty much the same reason I don't think this works that well (don't misunderstand - it's a lot more interesting than many). I couldn't find a cohesion between the reflections and the evident shape of the car - despite liking the way the light clusters break the lines of relections, effectively all you have to work with is the distortion of an image to reveal the shape of the metal - and there simply isn't enough drama in the car's shape here to make that effective. You end up with an incoherent organisation of bits of a scene, interrupted by those lights. If I were to try this again, I think I would try to shoot from lower, to use simpler, more easily grasped shapes (like the curves over a wheel arch), rather than the complex planes and surfaces of the hood (this is a US car right?) and the fender (?bumper to us UK folks). 6, for interest, and good thinking.

Summer Lovin', Had Me A Blast!
by sher

Comment:
Composition of this kind of shot is so tricky, and I'm not wholly convinced you've got it exactly: having looked at it a while, I wonder if the two focal points of the car - the fuel cap and the name badge, are perhaps unbalanced within the frame: perhaps using those as the twin focal points of the image would give a happier mix of car and sky - this way, I feel, its too even a division, not asking us to consider one or the other primarily, and thus leading to a divided sense of subject. 6

Low flying
by Luca66

Comment:
Looks like west London, though I suppose it could be anywhere. Great use of the wide-angle, imposing sihouette of plane; i really hope people vote for the impact of the shot rather than getting hung up on the skyline or something petty like that - but you've given them the chance. 7 from me, for now.

Listening for the Rain
by crabappl3

Comment:
I was almost convinced this was a jjbeguin shot - to the extent of being surprised it isn't. It has his trick with colours, and the shaping and shading of those foreground leaves. Also this composition is very typical of some of his work from a little while ago. Interesting stuff Dan; and it remains (as my previous comment meant to emphasise more) an abject lesson in how only a very small thing can have a disproportionate effect on an image - that tree can take up no more than about 3% of this image.

Philadelphia by Night
by jmlelii

Comment:
Er ... slight issue with the 'night' bit from where I'm looking :-) Don't really see this fitting - your subject is in such a flat plane, and so distant, that depth of field, deep or shallow, has little to do with anything. Technically a good cityscape, but had you waited for the sky to darken a bit more it would probably have more impact. As it stands, whilst being a perfectly competent shot technically, it lacks much impact for me. 5

Look Out
by TimboMachete

Comment:
Looks like he's throwing the rock - I'm guessing that the intention is that it's heading towards him. Or if it's to do with people below, then why's the rock so high in the air? That confusion is at the heart of what i don't like about this shot. The rest is the awfully flat light, and the odd composition, with that background hill behind him. I don't understand why you haven't profiled him against the sky more. 4

Happy Geese come from California
by jbeazell

Comment:
well now, what has happened to that sky? Beyond that, you have apotentially good scene here - the light, especially on those more distant trees, is lovely. A bit hit and miss in the foreground, i think - perhaps if you'd shot from lower you would have a happier composition? Just that change of a couple of feet in point of view can make an extraordinary difference. But that sky colour wrecks this shot for me, I'm afraid. 5

The Forth Rail Bridge@ 5am
by agwright

Comment:
Excellent, simple composition - exactly what I was expecting for this challenge, which is not always a bad thing. Great colour, great detail - I wish more people would simply choose the right time of day to try and take this kind of shot. Not exceptional - would perhaps want more drama in the sky for that, or something - but certainly very good indeed. 8