Pigeons
by rickhd13

Comment:
memorable shot, but I'm undecided as to whether or not the processing really adds anything worth adding. I think perhaps it does: a little sense of mystery, perhaps. Feel there's a lack of depth to the image however - they all seem to pretty much the same distance away (obviously they aren't, but the range isn't so great). I think also it might have been a pretty dull image without the level of processing, and whilst it helps that it can't really completely mask it. Still gets a 8, for mood if nothing else.

happy landing
by dc broughton

Comment:
Wonderful composition, light, a great moment caught: especially like the wave breaking alongside the dog - adds some dynamic to the shot, and keeps the eye moving in a good way. expect you might get voted down a little on the 'this is jumping, rather than flying' pedants, but I do hope not. 9 from me.

Future Pilot
by Sonifo

Comment:
Different from the run-of-the-mill birds and aeroplanes that were to be expected, but you haven't compromised despite the great idea: excellent composition, location, and technical work. manges to create an aspirational feel - somehow it looks like an old-fashioned kid out playing, a kid who never heard of Flight Simulator. My top of this challenge.

The Sideline Coach
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
Anna, I just sent you that last PM ... and so whose shot do I get to write about ...?

I think this is a hugely misunderstood shot: certainly the best of yours that I've commented on. Before I say anything else about it, i think it's worth noticing who's said good things about it and who hasn't from the comments list: and then looing at the quality of thier own shots. Intersting comparisons there :-)

Two things: the emptiness of the stands behind the 'mother' character: suggesting, deliberately or not, that everyone else has long gone, and in her anxiety for her sons' perfprmance she is still working at things: bith an encouraging and a slightly frightening suggestion. The kid's own expression - at first glance a big smile, but on closer examination perhaps slightly forced, slightly uncomfortable with te level of concentration, suggesting that he's just having fun, and not happy with the determination and drive in (presumably) his mother's opinions.

The fence just adds to that atmophere of separation. Great work.

Obviously there aretechnical elements that could have been improved: focus particularly, and perhaps the figures could have been brought slightly more strongly into the frame; the boy particularly appears almost to have crpet out of the composition. but set aginst that the impression that if they were so ideally placed, a lot of the candid nature of the image would have beeen sacrificed, and with that a lot of the quality of genuine observation that goes with it. In many ways, it serves to add feeling to the image.

Ber good, and keep shooting :-)

Ed

The Real Price of Freedom
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
oh alright then :-)

I both love and hate this photo, I think. he makes a wonderful subject - meaningful, both proud and humble simultaneously, affecting, solemn, and questioning: especially in the context of a great number of the other shots in this challenge.

I find the title a bit annoying: but I think that's a cultural difference as much as anything - we're less inclined to such public displays of certainty in Europe.

Technically, however, I think it's a disappointing shot: poorly framed (cutting of the edge of the wheeel and the boot), overly and unevenly flash-lit, purely illustrative in its composition, and ordinary in it's physical view-point. It gives a strong impression of your having been content once you'd seen this subject to simply point the camera at him, everything set to auto, and shap one shot, with no further thought toward what might make imprvements on such a straightforward shot - a different angle of view, a wider or closer framing, or anything. So much so that for me it distracts from the imapct of the image quite considerably.

Ed

"Usual Suspects"
by kengurinn

Comment:
Meant to comment on this shot during the challenge - and I've only remembered it now it's on the TV tonight :-) Great shot - IMO by far the most origianl and striking of the challenge - certainly the one that stays in thhe memory.

Ed

It's In The Seed
by Gracious

Comment:
Such an odd photograph - here's a few things that stike me about it. Composition - mt eye is constantly drawn to the shadows, rather than the subject. The real contrat lines are hugel exaggerated by over-sharpening (check where the two apples overlap). Graininess: the red field is enormously speckled, and that persists in the apples - there's no texture there at all! Low cantrast - there's no white, no black: given the muted subject, that at leasst would be neccesary to proveide some purely visulal interest.

What's more annoying is that it's a prety good idea - just that it could have been executed so much better. It needs composition, texture, depth, and prbably a kore intersting view-point. especially with one seed sitting on the surfacr of the apple: imagine a low level shot of that, against a dark background, with the seed picked out by lighting from the rear and the side ... you'd have a winner there.

"The village time forgot"
by jonpink

Comment:
meant to comment on this during the challenge, but never managed to get back to it. So many shots in this challenge were simply of old things - and on the face of it, so is this: but your toning, and the absence of people, or to my eye any sign of human activity after the building of these houses, puts it into a more meaningful category - saying something of the loss and other feelings inherent in the title of the challenge. Good work.

Home Stretch
by amsmyth

Comment:
Something odddly distracting about the red horse having all four feet off the ground :-) There's a lack of detail too - texture to the horses, and details of the flying dirt have been lost - perhaps too much zooming or cropping?

Pool Balls in Motion
by jdw91479

Comment:
Some lens distortion, and the lighting seems a bi odd - brighter one end of the table than the other: not sure that the hand isn't too far out of frame for a really attention-grabbing composition, too.