Well Bob you're right. Last week's gallery hardly got mentioned and I did
not do a review. For some reason my home ISP cannot download the gallery. It
gets hung up on the PF Banner and I've been abnormally busy at work. It
slipped by and that's not right so I quickly saved the images this morning
before the update and here goes. (I hate putting an image in the gallery and
getting absolutely no feedback.)
Roderick Chen - Blue, blue and blue. Did you dress him to match his eyes?
The lighting looks like natural light and well balanced. Nice job there. I
don't care much for photos of upset children though. This reminds me of my
son at the Sears portrait studio that my wife insisted on taking him to get
his photo taken.
Elson T. Elizaga (Bangday) - Unaccustomed to Phillipino names, I thought
Bangday meant something else. The peacefulness of the man's pose, his dog
and the excellent highlights from the sun are contrasted by the diagonal
lines of the bamboo floor. I am stongly affected by diagonal lines. To me
they provide intense tension in this image. I realize you needed to be where
you were to get this excellent angle on Bangday and there is nothing you
could do about the lines of the floor. Personally I would crop about half of
the floor out to lessen the angle of the lines. Having said that, I would
imagine most people don't even notice the floor.
D.L. Shipman - Phenomenal birds man! Beautiful lighting and very nice camera
angle. The background looks like it might have been desaturated in Photoshop
but it could be that there was a forest fire a couple of days ago. Stunning
plumage
Jose Luis Vasconcellos (Maria the cooker) - For some reason this is the only
image I could not get today but I did see it before and I remember it. My
mother-in-law's name is also Maria and 95% of the time I see her she's
cooking with that same expression your Maria shows - the look of someone who
understands the importance of what she does.
Bob Talbot (Before Six) - And as the clock indicates, it is shortly before
six. I like it when the title is actually visible in the image. (Result of a
twisted mind perhaps.) I like the way the objects in this image lead my eye
from the front to back in a zig zag way. Down the bench to the table to the
table shadow to the man walking away from me ot the building to the clock
where the minute hand points me into the sky and up along what looks like an
airplane vapour trail. A really fun ride packed with vibrant, late afternoon
colours.
Motti Heller (green) - When I first saw the thumbnail I was really impressed
but when I looked longer at the larger image, I found the hand too pale and
somewhat blue. It didn't seem to correctly contrast the green leaves. I also
find the ratio of hand to leaves to be off. I think if you cropped to a
square image around the hand, the image would be better balanced. I do like
the placement of the hand though.
John Mason (A TOADS on Main Street (A very graphic image. Aside from the
vibrant sky, the monochrome buildings with their many angles and that
fabulous reverse angle light standard are punctuated by a patch of intense
green weeds, a rusty red sign and orange lane stripes. To me a very
effective use of color and composition. Yay.
King/Arthu (Exiting CVS) - I really like the lighting on the pillar to the
left and the brick wall to the right. To me the middle of the scene is just
filler used to bridge the gap between these two edges. That might sound
negative but I imagine a CVS is some kind of mass produced outlet (made more
nondescript by the blurring) and therefore an appropriate bridge. I like
this image.
jIMMY Harris ('Snook' Snow) - OH, oh. Looks like a light leak along the top
of the frame jIMMY. Nice pattern in the snow. Perhaps a lower sun would
bring out the pattern more but that might have made the large shadows so
large they obscured the pattern. Is 'snook' short for 'Chinook'?
Richard Cooper (A lazy day on the Erie Canal) Lovely area chocked full of
vibrant colors. The composition doesn't thrill me though. There is a lot of
interest in the background but nothing but water on all three edges of the
frame and half the image is water. I noticed the ducks but they don't
balance out the background. I keep wanting to move the camera closer to the
locks.
Morley Roberts (Butterfly) - Excellentito amigo! This is the first butterfly
I have seen with attitude. The diagonal, yellow leaf slicing the corner of
the image and that cocky SOB butterfly perched there staring me down like
some flambouyant two bit street thug. Stay out of his f-ing garden. Nice
boken too. Beautiful shot!
Scott Thurmond (Volvo Ocean Race competitors in Annapolis, MD) - When this
image was first very slowly loading and it got down to the boat hulls I went
wow but then when it reached the bottom I went oh. To me, as it is, this
image is a record of before the start of a boat race. Nothing wrong with
that but it doesn't thrill me. I would crop just below the waterline if the
left-most, light blue boat. That way I have interest in the hulls of the
boats at the bottom of the frame. As it is, there is boring water there and
like a lazy day on the Erie canal, the foreground water looks bland to me.
OK that's it and sorry for the delay. Got some work to do in the
dark/bathroom.
Greg Fraser
http://www.geocities.com/fraserg1962
