Hello all, A number of months back, I contributed a few reviews. Since then I have several times gotten halfway through doing others but did not finish before the gallery had changed. While the exercise was not completely useless (I learned something in writing them) this time I am opting for much shorter comments so as to ensure they go beyond my hard drive. One worry for me about shorter comments though is that criticism can, in that context, feel abrupt and even dismissive. Such is not the intent, and I would thank the contributors for putting their work up to be commented upon. (Thanks to Andy and staff.) So, here be my thoughts on this weeks gallery: Pablo Coronel - 350 Supercharged This is quite nice. But I think it would have been a bit stronger with more space at left and at bottom. As it is, the filter feels a bit cramped in the frame. Bill Ellis - Late Night Snack A nice slice of night-life, but _very_ yellow! I would certainly try to adjust the colour-balance. The lamp post cutting through the sign is distracting as well, but it does look like that with all the cars parked there it might not have been possible to find a better angle. (Are there enough 24-h Maxwell St Polish sausage stands that it is necessary that they point out they are the original one?) Greg Fraser - Agony I can see why this evoked pain for you, but I read it differently. It makes me think of how nature is often stronger than us or our creations. Can't go through? Well fine then; go around! I like the contrast in textures between the bark and the rusting metal. Dan Mitchell - Cley Mill I quite like how the position of the mill and the channel work together. There is the implication of an S-curve that is quite pleasing compositionally. It might be stronger without the wooden structure at bottom left, but I imagine the local authorities would have frowned on modification, even for the sake of art. Rich Mason - Eat Neon, reflections, and psychedelia. What's not to like? I am curious as to exactly what you were pointed at to get the effect. D.L. Shipman - Callipygian Jones Well, it is a woman with a thong heading into the water. I am not nearly puritanical enough to be bothered by that, but I don't see anything here to make me look more than once. Was it done with digital? There seems to be a strange texture to the water, and I wonder if it is a digital artifact or not. Jeff Spirer - Dots I don't think this would have worked in colour, but in B&W it is quite nice. I like the triple arcs. There is something pleasingly 'alien' about it as well. But what the heck are those dots anyway? Fred van Sand - Beachtree I've spent enough time on the OR coast to have several shoeboxes of evidence to back up my claim that I at least find the beauty of the place difficult to capture on film. Perhaps it is because all the muted colours do not translate well. But this works by giving up on colour entirely. The silhouette is very effective. It might have been improved by not being quite so close to the edge of the frame though. Pini Vollach - The colours are rather washed out, and the composition strikes me as off-balanced. Perhaps it would be improved by cropping out the patch of blue at lower right. But even so, while I think that the colours would have tempted me too, I don't think there is enough here to hold my interest. Bruce Weitzman - Speak-Hear-See, self-portrait Interesting technique and a favourite theme. Very good choice to make the three portraits increase in height across the frame. Given the method used, it would be small to complain about the slivers to the left of each portraits (and the one to the right of the final one), but I am curious as to why they are there. I am also curious as to how long the exposure was. How many attempts did it take to get a workable image from this Rube Goldberg-like set up? Stephen Ylvisaker - Do I trust my eyes or my brain? I am afraid that the rest of the class is going to point and laugh, but I don't see the optical illusion here. I see road, rock, and scrub, but nothing more. Not seeing the illusion, I don't see the point. Brian van den Broek brianvanden@yahoo.ca ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
