Better get this posted before Xmas gets the better of me....
D L Shipman, Danaus plexippus: Excellent technique, the colour of the flowers complement those of the butterfly. My only problem is the dead background (grey card or something) that gives a somewhat artificial look.
Jim Snarski, Airborne: My favourite this week. Absolutely perfect background for the subject. A bit unsharp, but that doesn´t bother me at all; instead it gives a nice softness to the whole image.
Pablo Coronel, Woodscape: To me, it looks like some glacier from the air, complete with a mountain behind. A little more detail in the wood would have been nice.
Jim Davis, Gulls on Posts: Funny and beautiful. The one gull looking in the opposite direction helps a lot, so do the reflections of the birds.
Shawna Hanel, Santa Please: One of those Shawna pics that works well on its own, with the gentle S-curve of the beads and the muted background (which somehow makes me think of a horse´s neck).
Laurenz Bobke, Sunset in the Summer Palace: A successful sunset picture, in that it isolates the beautiful part of a sunset (the reflection) and spares us the garish sky... Someone commented that the title detracts from the abstract feeling: I agree. Otherwise, I like it.
C J R Strevens, The shape of things to come: Interesting shapes, the light shows the textures well. The extremely cluttered foreground actually helps the picture.
Pini Vollach, Forbidden Love: I´ve no problems with the sloping horizon, but I´d crop away as much as possible of that white sky on the left. This would in fact emphasize the "unbalanced" feeling in getting the couple more to one side of the picture, near the bottom of the slope. The bright right corner of the lawn is important.
Bill Ellis, : I don´t know whether the church is really old, or just one of these 19th century pastiches. Either way, an interesting variety of lines, but I can´t say I really like the picture.
Scott Thurmond´s Aunt Zelda, Lost in Thought?: A gripping glimpse of the Thurmond Family Chronicle is given to us all. Just let us hope that wolverine enjoyed his dinner....
W R Gill, Light Rain on the Duck Pond: What a composition! The background and the perfectly place ducks makes it look like a painting; nature is seldom that perfect for most of us... For me, this is Number Two this week (after Jim Snarski´s entry), and very close to a draw.
OK, finally I wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Per
