the seats

This is a very interesting photo. Very original. Good range of tones from whitest of white to blacks. I want to get rid of the tiny stump of a tree at the top. Can you clone it out? And the other tree and you will be left with the interesting shape of the fence and the bench facing it.

I am not entirely qualified, I don't think, to critique properly. I have just read your questions in the forum. I do not know what the cure for the problem would be. One thing to do is to look at photos you like and comment and rate them to the best of your ability. People will sometimes return the favour and you slowly build up a 'friends' list. Although that seems to be a problem as well, with the same people automatically rating each other and manipulating the top photos page. Perhaps if you had a long list of friends and did honest ratings and good critiques you would find the kind of people you are looking for. I have been fortunate in having a lot of good help from knowledgeable people, but suffer from the same malady as everyone else, although I try not to. We love the ratings! When, in actual fact, it is the good critiques and comments that have helped me the most, and mostly the same people continue to help me. I try to pass it on as best I can. I started by watching the Gallery page, as Brian said in his comment. That seemed to show me pictures I could choose ones I liked and then take time to do a good comment and rating. This is all I have time for now, but I will add you to my list of friends and try to get back some time. That is another problem, I believe, is that most of us do not have all that much time to devote to other people's photos. It takes me ages to look at a photo and comment it. We need guidelines on critiqueing. But who will ever read them and take the time to follow them? Best of luck with your own friends list and perhaps even a presentation.

Thank you! That's a comment! Is maybe the most meaningful I received here. That's a nice side effect of my post in forums :)

I was quite active here a few months ago. And a list of friends began to built up. But as I said, I felt at a certain moment that the site is no longer functioning well. Well, I said there what I think

I value your honest approach, I wish we were many more like you

Regards, Dan.

From reading back in the forums, it seems there were some real flame wars happening and it was worse than this before we joined. So, maybe from that perspective, the site is actually improving. Although, I do know what you mean by it not functioning the way it is intended to function. There will always be people to abuse any system that is in place. The only thing to do is to take the best from the site that is here and just let the rest be ignored. There are lots of people that are helpfull and fun, it just takes finding them and it takes ignoring the things that are not helpfull. If you can. Peace.

G'day from down under! I saw the 'furore' that followed your honest question that you posted in the forum. You got quite a reaction...

 

Unless you had a particular reason for this composition as it is, your photo is suffering from incorrect framing, as in, when you lined this up in the camera's viewfinder. I agree with Margaret that the trees need to go, but rather than digitally removing the distractions, I would try to return to this location under similar circumstances (looks like you had a little rain before taking this one) and try a slightly different angle, or just one step to the right. In the absence of any other elements in this image, there is a certain tension between the seat and the little fence. The fence itself is interesting, mainly because it looks to have bits missing from it. I would also like to see a bit more contrast... I will have a look at some of your other work shortly. M.M. got me here... ;-)

Empty bench after rainfall in the park. It has been done many times. But I like your shot because wet texture of the wooden bench and cobblestone gives me a feeling of lonly and quiet atmosphere.

Opposed to other comments, I would include a little more scene, a little more wide angle, emphasising a lonliness of the bench. To me, your crop looks too tight. Just my opinion.