Cold and Refreshing
by Marjo

Comment:
:-) 'Warning - not a life saving device' indeed - might have made a great title. Looks like it might well save my life some days! More seriously - a fine shot, but perhaps a little compromised by the framing - for me, it could have been either more closely or more widely framed, either to focus on the bber or the context.

Refreshing Stream for Summer Heat
by amonteforte

Comment:
I've scored this pretty high not so much because of any great feeling of temperature coming from it, but simply for the wonderful quality of the shot: one of the better portraits i've ever seen here. A small note would regarding the composition: my eye is pulled away from the girl by both the brightness to the left and the shade to the right - I think there's probably enough foreground brightness to have allowed you to crop out the rock to the upper left and still maintain the effect. perhaps you could also have cropped to the child's head more closely at the top: this looks rather like it may have come straight out of the camera this way.

Hot Hot Hot
by rickhd13

Comment:
Wonderful capture - one of the secrets of good photography is of course getting yourself to the right place at the right time. The foreground tree adds some useful contrast to the intensity of the fire. Excellent exposure, wonderful detail and there's still some sense of movement there. My only slight gripe is that I might like to have seen more context than that single branch - certainly meets the challenge, but for me in a slightly too straightforward way - in that it's only about heat, and not about, for instance, reaction to heat as well.

Hot, Lazy Afternoon
by jjbeguin

Comment:
This reminds me of something - and it's taken me two days to work out what: a series of photos by Antonin Kratochvil called 'Sideshow'. Those were actually of circus sideshow freaks, but it's the compoitional technique and the darkness and contrast that I'm thinking of. This is the only photo of this challenge which truly communicates a feeling of heat to me: of the desire not to move, the effort even of reading proving too much, the derperation for some movement of air. The lifted skirt just adds that extra element of hunting for the slightest breeze.

Wonderful work.

Shipwreck?
by BAMartin

Comment:
From Critique Club - hi Barbara

I found this challenge to be ultimately confusing - isn't it the case that every decent photo is some kind of unanswered question? I didn'tt enter, didn't vote, and so perhaps shouldn't be critique-ing.

Technically, I see no issues with this shot. Focus, exposure, lighting are all fine. Compositionally it's also OK: there's enough interest in the water surrounding your subject to make the off-centre placement not seem arbitrary (an often misunderstood element of the thirds 'rule'). I would perhaps have considered cropping a little from the top of frame - just to be less of a computer-screen aspect ratio, which i don't find to be a particularly eye-friendly shape.

Other alternatives that spring to mind: more water, less person (as someone else has commented) - or perhaps even a closer crop in portrait format to emphasise those reflections and the contrast of the orange and the brown/black of the water.

Why didn't it score higher? I would have thought it warranted at least a 5.5 - it lacks some drama to be higher for me, and the comment about the height of the subject out of the water is also valid. I also think that scores in general are lower recently (look at both current winners, just barely making 7).

It's a good photo though - more intersting than most I think, and it's a little hard done by with that score.

Ed

In a previous existence
by e301

Comment:
Thanks for those thoughts and opinions everyone. The reason for the crop being so tight is that I wanted the arm to really loom into the picture, so I needed to get pretty close in to it: also, had i given it much more space, the point of the stylus tended to get lost at this resolution - I really like the sharpness of it against the light.

Ed

Splash
by e301

Comment:
Intersting comments - thanks to all. Two things not mentioned before: this shot is SO much more interesting in colour for one, though the intent was to shoot something about motion capture that had to do with reflection rather than refraction. Also, it actually IS level, horizontally: look at the nagle at which the water is sitting rathe than the edge of the bowl. Unfortunatley, it was too tricky a capture, and I hadn't enough time to get both bowl and splash straight with another set of shots. Still. Glad some of you liked it.

The Birds
by buck4free

Comment:
So much of good photography is about being able to hit tthat shutter release at exactly the rigt moment. Top work here.

flight
by deceptive

Comment:
Your moment of Critique Club is at hand ... hi Andy.

Damn but Brighton's a great place for photography.

Don't know what to say about this shot - get the distinct feeling after looking at your portfolio that you've done absolutely what you wanted to with it. Not an easy shot with that camera either, eh? :-)

Lots of good stuff - especially like the framing: great sense of the bird having somewhrere to go to. Just enough motion blur n the wings to give that sense of flight - it actually looks like it's gliding, though given the shutter speed I guess it must have been actually flapping it's wings. There's a real sense of strength across it's back too - of the effort required to get airborne.

The black backgound is a great addition: though it looks like you had to put some effort into disappearing whatever was there.

It's good work though: disappointed with 11th?

Bon chance for the future

ed

The Castle
by inspzil

Comment:
Your CC moment is at hand - hi Bob

I've been thinking about this shot a fair bit. There's a couple of things I like enormously about it: the effect of the 1 sec exposure on a couple of the trees, and the IR filter (it IS an IR filter, yes?).

Your two bugbears - the power lines and the horizon; certainly have no problem with the horizon - that amount of sky above the subject is, rather, essential I would say, to the success of this shot: had it been cropped as elsewhere suggested it owuld jsut be a confusing riot of patterns, and you'd lose the echo of the form of the castle in the forms of the trees. The power lines don't particularly affect things for me either - they're pretty well hidden, and I guess I just don't find them the distraction that others seem to.

So - technically, a very accomplished shot, really nothing to add on that front. It perhaps lacks that special inspirational moment - whatever that thing is that takes it out of the 6's and into the 7's. But that's hardly something that can just be picked out and inserted into your shots. Good luck in the future

Ed