I'm rusty at reviews, please forgive.... "350 Supercharged", by Pablo Coronel -- This is a great picture of an air cleaner. If there's a supercharger on that motor, we cannot see it. For that matter, we cannot see the motor. The "Turbo-fire" designation did not mean the motor had forced induction, either. =========================== "Late Night Snack", by Bill Ellis -- Nightgoers in Chicago milling in front of a stand for a nibble. The people look like characters out of the early '50s. A Post-Millenial "Nighthawks" comes to mind. I think this has enough potential to go back for further visual exploration. I've walked past this, or others exactly like it in S. Chicago many times in my travels, but not at night. This would be a lot stronger minus the cars, and stronger still, IMO, shot with a wide from the sidewalk, mingling among the customers. The yellow color is something I would not change. There IS a yellow cast there, even during daytime. Get closer. ================================ "Agony", by Greg Fraser -- After suppressing the gag reflex that ensued from reading the saccharine title (my cat synchronized with me & heaved a furball in empathy), not to mention the subtitle, I see this is a branch that has used its neighbor fence to hold on to, and perhaps escaped to grab more light elsewhere. I see this as a success story. The branch is rusting out the fence, and in the end may emerge the winner. In any case, it will issue seeds and go on, but the fence will eventually rot and vanish. Whew. Another modernistic composition from Greg, a little too heavily weighed to the lower right for this viewer. I think a small reflector throwing light onto the rusty parts, specially that thing in the background right would have helped this work better in color. ============================ "Cley Mill", by Dan Mitchell -- An idyllic meadow scene with a stream running though it, with some houses and a windmill in the background. A pretty, pictorial landscape composition. The tone of the sky could be darker ( polarizer or GND, or fudge it in PS7). That itty bitty pier or whatever that wooden thing is in the foreground is distracting. BTW, tests show that a meadow scene with a stream and house in it is the most universally liked composition (across countries and cultures polled in the study). ============================= "Eat", by Rich Mason -- A neon abstraction with the "eat" sign repeating across the bottom. Rich is on a roll...his picture from last week drew my attention into peeking in here this week Both rock, in different ways, this one reminds me of the fascination that Faurer, Frank, and many other '50s photogs had for neon. A very dynamic, captivating image that would work far better on a larger scale. -================================= "Callypigian Jones", by D.L. Shipman -- A voyeuristic shot of a bather placidly wading in knee-deep azure waters. A familiar Floridian sight. There seem to be PS artifacts around the arms and "splash" of an otherwise graceful gesture. Were those splotches of red really on her skin ? If it's a sunburn they look really uneven (how does one tan like that ? Rhetorical question, please don't tell us !). -------------------------- "Dots", by Jeff Spirer -- OK, I'm biased....I like Jeff's work, have seen it develop over the years and know he delivers. Here he brings us a mysterious series of covers/plaques (?) on what seems to be asphalt. This reminds me of the kind of halo work I used to see in the heyday of Creative Camera, an excellent British Magazine. I love the secondary alignments of those dots....after a while they resonate with each other, like a solo flutist playing around his own echoes. ----------------------------------------- More reviews to follow --- Luis
