Ambitions a size too big
by tinky2

Comment:
I think the idea that the title suggest would be illustrated better if you had included a view of older skaters. The incongruity of sizes is cute but without being let in what they are looking at off-camera, my interest wanes. I think for this shot, at least one of the boys should be looking more toward the viewer.

Parking Lot Player
by jorr

Comment:
A bit overexposed in the foreground and I would suggest cropping out the guy in the corner. This doesn't really engage my interest but it does fit the challenge.

Strawberry Queen
by PhantomEWO

Comment:
While the incongruity of her tiara to the cell phone and her designer sunglasses gives this a certain unexpected element the extreme glare on her sunglasses detracts from this quite a bit, IMO. I think it meets the challenge but it doesn't much appeal to me.

A quiet read in the sun
by bob_bobski

Comment:
Quite a bit overexposed, unfortunately. For a candid to appeal to me I want to see the subject captured doing something unexpected (but in a real, not set-up way), or as is more common, in away that reveals something about a universal theme (love, happiness, friendship, loneliness, etc) and do it in a way that engages the viewer in an emotional way. This subject has potential but this shot didn't quite capture it for me.

Conquered
by Artyste

Comment:
Very cute child, nice image quality, and great choice for angle of view. I'd like it better if she were looking more directly at the viewer. Also, the trees in the background bother me. If they couldn't be eliminated from the shot by placing the subject where only sky would be visible behind her, then they should have been blurred quite a bit more---something which needs to be done in -camera for this challenge,so that depends largely on what your capable of achieving with the camera set-up you have.

Portrait Of Sake
by giang

Comment:
I'm not sure how candid this is. I'd like to see the dog doing something unexpected or showing more expression. It is decent capture of its' eye, technically, but artistically this photo isn't showing me something special or unexpected about this particular dog. I expect a candid to reveal something to me, either something personal about the subject, or something that reflects a universal theme (like loneliness, love, friendship, etc). You know and love your dog so obviously you will see more in a portrait like this than a more objective viewer. The trick is to capture your dog in a way that the outside viewer can connect in a more personal way (other than the initial 'awww' reaction any dog lover might have to a cute picture of a dog).

Picking Flowers
by beerman

Comment:
Nice but I'd like to see her face. This shot would have benefited from a helper holding some sort of reflector (white poster board, board covered with foil) to fill in the features of her face more. The details in her hands are quite a bit blown out. It looks like good exposure of her hands was sacrificed in order to get a better exposure of her face. There is an overall lack of good detail in the midtones. The cropping is nice.

Candid Encounter
by Dim7

Comment:
I feel like the owl should have been captured doing something more unexpected or more expressive to be considered candid. To me this is a nature photo. In terms of image quality, I find it a bit overexposed and not quite sharp enough in the crucial area of its eyes. The eyes are what should grab me about this image but in this the glint just isn't there.

Oh !! But I do have a dark side.
by itsmetena

Comment:
This is a bit to soft around the features for me. There isn't much of a catch light in his eyes. Either filtered fill-flash or a simple reflecting device was needed to fill in the dark shadows obscuring most of his features. It's a nice expressive capture but the image quality is a bit lacking for me.

Long Walk Home
by buddybuddy1226

Comment:
I'm not sure this picture is really capturing much of great interest. I'm not getting much in the way of expression or mood. It just seems to be a snap of the child as he walks in front of you. I understand the idea was to show the street, and give the sense of the 'long walk' but this just isn't doing it. For one thing, there are houses not that far away and home could be one of those as far as the viewer knows. The other problem is there isn't really anything we can see from this rear-view that gives the viewer an idea of the boy's emotions. One of way of capturing the feeling it looks like you were after is to shoot from a much lower viewpoint, either at the child's eyelevel, or even lower. This would have the two-fold effect (hopefully) of making the road appear more looming, and giving us more of an impression of the boy's experience because we are viewing everything from his eye level. If you shoot from even lower, it will give more of the feeling of a child looking up at the world of grown-ups.