Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Criticque Club!

Initial impression: 1-2-3-Awwwwwwww....very cute picture of a very lucky dog.

Technical: comp is a little centred which probably cost you in terms of score. The slightly oof foreground works well, helps draw the eye in. I think the creases in the quilt over her come across as a tiny bit heavy, there is nothing similar underneath to help balance it out. Some glare on the quilt, the bane of shooting anything white. ISO is quite high, 400 or even 200 may have done the job esp at 1/50.

Artistic: I like this shot because it has a spontaneous feel, and who knows when the subject will wake up and decide they want out of the shot?

Overall: Quite a nice shot, very peaceful, and you got a decent score. A little hit with fill flash or shadows/highlights may have taken out some of the dark areas in the quilt. And FWIW I was told long ago that it was best to resize once everything else had been done - THEN unsharp mask. Doesn't seem to hurt.

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by Ja-9:
well she looks comfy...well done

Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by scooter97:
The light is just right.

Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by Balko:
Ah, how every dog should live :) 8

Rocky Reflection
by IWhispered

Comment by Mark-A:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

Composition:

The composition whilst not bad is just a little lacking, with setup shots on DPC you really have to nail the composition if the voters are going to look favourably on your shot, you have an odd number of stones which is generally considered a good thing for balance, but I think there may have been more interesting ways you could have presented them, maybe having one very close to the front of your scene would have given some depth to your shot, at the same time it would have allowed a lot more of the textures to be seen.

I'm personally not keen on cutting the center of an image with the horizon (or represented horizon in this instance), but that's quite possibly just my personal preference.

Camera Work:

The technicals look pretty good, the lighting is solid enough and there's just enough detail in the shadow areas for my taste and your focus is on the money.

Post-Processing:

I think that you have processed your shot fairly well, I might have taken a few different steps had it been my shot, a shadows highlight definitely brings out some more details and then a small contrast brightness boost puts the levels back nicely and just finished off with a little sharpening

My Opinion:

It's a nice enough shot that is well executed, I feel the composition is a little weak - but I am assuming these are small pebbles on a home setup rather than some huge boulders on a lake somewhere as one of your commentors remarked.

Anyway the above is just my personal opinions and I hope they have helped in some way, if not please do not be offended and I am more than happy to discuss this critique further should you wish to pm me.

Good luck in future challenges!

Mark

Rocky Reflection
by IWhispered

Comment by SandyP:
I really like this. The simplicity of it is beautiful.

Support Your Local Zoo!
by IWhispered

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Initial impression: very cute picture of an otter, but a very noisy picture too. I gave it a 6 in voting because basically a good shot and I could understand wanting to shoot at a high ISO to ensure a good capture of subject.

Technical: ISO 3200...yow, that's VERY high. ISO 800 should have been sufficient, especially for a subject that is basically very relaxed. Composition good, DOF a little shallow, lighting is ambient; again feel that a lower ISO would have resulted in a better shot. POF is dead on, but in zoos you are often limited as to how you can shoot.

Artistic: Would have been nice to get a face-on shot or even a 3/4 shot to add a little more dynamism. However, critters do not take direction well.

FWIW/Overall: I worked as an advertising copywriter for several years, and the copy here sounds quite dry, more like a corporate mission statement. You want to create a sense of excitement and adventure: Share the marvels of nature with your children! etc., etc.

Quite a pleasant shot of an appealing subject. Keep shooting!

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

My Favorite Enemy
by IWhispered

Comment by Citadel:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This is a hard subject to photograph. If you expose the glass properly then your background doesn't have that nice white seamless look to it. I think the only way to overcome the problem is lighting the background and the subject. I'd be curious to see the lighting setup.

The icecream / frozen dessert it a bit out of focus as well. I think that the fluid at the bottom is also distracting but that might be debatable.

As for the challenge? In my opinion this was a shoe horn. Not as bad as some of the entries but it was a bit of a stretch and I think a lot of the voters might have agreed. I do understand the concept you were trying to convey so when I encountered this image during voting I didn't deduct for not meeting the challenge. (I generally only do that when the shot clearly doesn't meet the challenge).

Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by npasel:
Now this brings a smile to my face!

Ele
by IWhispered

Comment by SandyP:
:) A Queen in her splendor :) I love it!