Lea Murphy - This is an effective coming together of contrast, repetition, texture. Interesting that the vignetting in the full-sized version isn't as noticable as it is in the thumbnail, which is good because if you notice such an effect it's distracting. The circles in the railing are a nice counterpoint to the sharp angles of the steps. Jim Davis - Yellow Trees I think this is an instance where the real thing is vastly more moving than a photographic image can be, unless it's in a large format, like, say, 8 x 10, and even then it's only an approximation. I have a lot of senics taken on my travels through England and Italy that I enjoy looking at because they remind me of what I saw and how I felt about it. Trevor Cunningham - plants taller than i (cont.) This is a pleasing image, but I'll wager that the plant is not taller than the author, unless he means it metaphorically! I like the bluish tint, and the meticulous detail. Dan Mitchell - Tree The sepia tone suggests an image taken a long time ago, but then the immediately recognizable Polaroid format says it's contemporary. This is a sort of dissonance that works against an appreciation of the subject, at least for me. Marilyn Dalrymple - Still Life in Red I've always been drawn to and love Caravaggio's tenebrism, a heightened chiaroscuro, and this takes me right back to it. Colors surrounded by darkness become deeper, richer, more evocative. Beautiful work. Emily L. Ferguson - To the Beach - brrr This is an inviting and pleasant scene, although the green on the trees don't suggest cold in any way. I'd crop off some of the top, and also would crop out the step in the foreground, which would eliminate unnecessary distraction. Michael Hughes - Warm-up In my view there are three major problems with this composition. One is that the point of interest, the conductor, is out of focus. Another is that too much of the audience is showing. I'd move in closer. And finally it's about a stop or two overexposed. Next time I'd try putting the camera on a tripod and turning off the flash, and taking a lot of shots. You might get a blur on the conductor's arm and baton, which would heighten the sense of energy and movement such a scene elicits. David Small - Interesting, nicely done. The only improvement I can think of is that the model might have squatted down a bit, which would have put a crook in his right arm, which would nicely break up the rather static straight line of his two extended arms. Mark Harris - Valya Shadowed I'm not particularly drawn to this image. Others may be.
