John, Thanks for your insightful review. The funniest part was where you mention the older children 'smiling as directed.' Children of that age don't do much as directed, smiling at a camera being, in my experience, darn near top of the list. I thought to have them use their playground smiles but I was too worn out that day to drag the slide and swing up to the studio. Another day, perhaps. Lea all will be well On Oct 2, 2010, at 10:44 AM, John Palcewski <palcewski@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Lea Murphy - Rachel, Josh and Edyn This is a technically perfect image, and doubtless the parents are delighted, but it suffers from the lifelessness of most arranged and posed commercial studio images. The two older children are smiling as directed but they are not as genuinely happy as they would be in a more natural state while on a playground or at the beach or in an amusement park. The infant is caught in a good position and expression, but likely is responding to an adult's voice. The artsy border seems wholly unnecessary and artificial. > > Andrew Sharpe - Cactus leaf This is a somewhat interesting black and white study but not exactly compelling. > > Rand Flory - Surprise Lake The harsh overexposed pale rocky areas need to be burned in or better yet the image should have been made a stop or two down. A strong argument here for bracketing. > > Pablo Coronel - 10AM Not much is going on in this rocky wall. The shadows seem to be of church spires, but then what's the mass to their right? The time of day as a title seems irrelevant to the visual subject matter. > > Dan Mitchell - Rooftops A very busy collection of buildings in suburbia, taken from a relatively high elevation, perhaps from the window of a departing or arriving airplane. Nothing stands out, captures attention. > > Trevor Cunningham - darkling beetle I never knew cats ate insects until one day on the patio of my villa in Italy my lean and mean Calico leaped two feet straight in the air and snagged a buzzing dragonfly, then greedily chewed it up. This bug looks like it came from outer space. > > Christopher Strevens - The happy Priests. Sorry but as a former Catholic and quite familiar with that body's institutionalized pedophelia and decades-long coverup, I can only wince, even though these folks probably are Protestants, since three of them are women. > > Emily Ferguson - Harvest Moon Moody, dreamy shot. Romantic. > Yoram Gelman - Drip Dry This would have been much more successful an image if the sky had not been overcast. Too much white in the background.