squirrelman

Beautifully captured and nicely posed. Suggestions: You could dodge the areas that are in shadow to brighten the image a bit, and you could select just the sky and add a little color of your choice to it.

This young mute swan is boss among birds, and fears no one, at the

Prospect Park Lake. They often flap their wings, both to dry them and

to demonstrate their authority.

A great example of bird IQ. They seem to know the easiest way to hunt. I've watched red tailed hawks hunt squirrels, and the more experienced ones knock them out of trees to stun or kill them. If the squirrel is smart and brave enough to stay still and face the hawk, they can win the battle. Running away is usually their demise.

Interesting composition and a good pose on the immature mute swan. You might try burning in the overexposed areas around the sun if they are not totally blown out, it would make the eyes go more to the swan then the sky.

Nice black and white with good contrast and focus. Was this originally taken in color? If so, how does it compare to the b & w? Looks like the image is taken in low angled sun with a dark shady background. You could also clone out that twig or stick in the right background, it draws the eye and adds nothing to the composition.

Cute little guy, nicely captured and focused. Might want to leave off the frame. The shot really does not need one. We call these purple/red finches. I think the term "house sparrow" refers to the plain colored ones.

Nicely photographed. Love these dogs. We have one where I live on Long Island, New York, and she is quite intelligent and loyal and very energetic. We don't, of course, use her in this way. If you have sufficient pixels you might crop this one closer and leave out the dogs on the left.

A rare wing position revealing the egret's left wing in all its glory.

A fabulous catch, Rick, despite that area of unavoidable shadowing. The detail is tack sharp and you did a great job nailing down an ideal exposure level on both the sky and the subjects. I have never seem these beauties before. Where are they from?

There was potential here, Gerrit, but the lighting was rather flat and there is also some noticeable under exposure and a lack of image sharpness. The people in the background are also distracting.

I like the pose and expression on this man, but what hurts this image is the elbow of that man in the foreground, which is a real distraction. A more parallel angle to the subject might have also worked better had it been possible.

Mallards are among the fastest of all birds in level flight, reaching

speeds approaching 60 mph. In this photo we can see the aerodynamics

of flight quite clearly, with the head and neck compressed and

elongated and the body tapered for the least wind resistance. The male

was about five feet above the water.

A fabulous pose and a great angle and crop, Rob. I do think the toning on this image is rather flat, and I would suggest doing as much as possible to bring out some more highlights where possible. In particular I'd like to see more detail in the eyes. This may also be an image that translates poorly to a computer screen but looks much better when printed.

The main problem for me with this image is the angle. The fellow with the accordian is the most interesting element, but he is being lost in the background. I also thing shooting more from the middle of the train may have helped, assuming you could do so without anyone noticing. The lower parts of the image could also use some brightening.

I think the lighting angles and shooting conditions were more of a problem that being too far away. The brighter background has left most of the foreground underexposed and the eagle looks soft, perhaps from ground haze or fog, if not from poor focusing or bad optics.

Cute squirrel pose, Sara. Composition may have been improved by shooting at an angle more level to the squirrel's height. I would also increased the neutral tone levels for the entire image as well as darken the background so as to make the subject stand out better. Whites are also hot in a couple of places on the squirrel.

A double crested cormorant looking dragon-like at the lake on a mild

late October afternoon.

Not sure what your new program does, but if it's a sharpening filter the detail here is excellent and the DOF pretty damn good for a macro shot. For some reason the eye looks soft, although it is obviously in the range of focus so perhaps it's the glare? In any case you could apply some additional sharpening to the eye. I might also try darkening the blurry area on the right, it may be less distracting that way.

I too love old fashioned wooden coasters!!

David, I believe you are critiquing this photo as if it were a glamour portrait, which it is obviously not. The main subjects are the couple in the front seat and the emotional interaction between them, and there is good detail, exposure, and focus on them.

 

Anyway the photo could be cropped someone was going to be cut in the background. The black man in the second row was of necessity underexposed, and then lightened to tolerances but could not be brought all the way back.

 

Some mild to moderate grain is actually welcomed in this shot, I was going for that b & w tri-x look. Besides, it was not shot in a studio on a tripod in controlled lighting conditions at a low ISO, but rather in contrasty sunlight at a high ISO with the subjects moving at about 50 mph.

Patience finally paid off after shooting faces on the famous Coney

Island roller coaster "The Cyclone" for about two hours. I cropped the

image as much as pixel resolution would permit to capture the shear

terror in this woman's face. Then I converted to sepia and increased

the neutral tones to give the photo an old fashioned look. The old

Coney Island, which has been dying a slow death for many years, is

about to die for good as Astroland -- of which the Cyclone is part --

will be torn down at the end of the year. I'm told the Cyclone will be

saved, but the rest of Astroland will not.

Compositionally an excellent street shot. Not sure I like what you've done to the subject or why the whites in the water are perfectly exposed but blown on the boy/man.

Great face and a very interesting effect with a daring use of overexposure, but hard to judge because monitors can vary so much. Based on what I see, I probably would have went for more tonality and detail in the face.

Good subject placement and a very beautiful sky. Not sure if you converted this from color, but the whites are border line hot and tend to preserve better in color versions.

Good use of perspective and wide angle distortion. I do think the whites in the top left area are a tiny bit overexposed, suggest darkening that area to match the exposure in the rest of the image.