squirrelman

Excellent compositional choice of lines and curves, making a simple image quite beautiful. Flowers are always hard to photograph and make things interesting, but you have succeeded here.

A fascinating image. I'm amazed at how the exposure time turned things into "daylight." And it was clever to point north to Polaris to capture that circular effect of rotating stars. Sharpness is also excellent.

Overall this is a nice effort and the countryside is quite beautiful. I do think there is room for improvement. First, the shadow in the lower left on the road should be either cloned out or cropped out. Second, the lighting itself seems a bit harsh and the right side of the image is a bit underexposed but well within the ability to adjust. I understand the light is naturally brighter on the left, but the right side is just too dark in my opinion.

Thanks, Sandra!

Aren't you glad you're not at Sig getting hollow thumbs for commenting on too many of my pictures?! I've actually reworked this image a bit better since this was posted. It was getting dark when I snapped this one -- right around sunset. I shot this one at eye level from about five feet away, actually. I was standing on some steps to the roof and my head and camera were level with the squirrel.

Thanks, Dave. I've really improved my PS work since I posted this version. B & W versions don't wuite work as well because the blue eyes get lost.

Thanks, Dave. This one was completely ignored over at Sig.

Thank, David. I really haven't seen another collage quite like this on 9/11.

Some shots were made for black and white, but this one was made for color in my opinion, and for a less grainy medium. The lack of significant difference between sky and water also makes for a static B & W composition.

Hi Paul. I understand what you were trying to do, but there's just not enough here to really interest the viewer or draw them into the photo. Lacking anything identifiable, there is no sense of space or proportion.

Hi Gregory. Flowers are actually pretty tough to photograph and make them look as interesting and beautiful as they are in person. This one is rather static looking (too centered) and the lighting is mostly on the shadowy side, which really reduces the impact. Might have worked better shooting closer and just the upper areas that were better illuminated.

This little fellow was very interested in having his picture taken. I

used my ability to interact with squirrels to pose him just like a

wanted to. First I fed him, and then I slowly and gently moved a bit

too close to him. Invariable, they get a little nervous and retreat

part of the way up a tree. Then, they peek around the sides tosee

where you are, as they don't wish to lose sight of their meal ticket.

It's poses like these that make the best photos.

An excellent effect and a very interesting compositional arrangement of sand and sky. Could perhaps use some highlights and shadows adjusting to further enhance detail -- it's a bit hot on the left and I believe more detail can be gained from the sands on the right.

I'm sure this was a thrilling shot to take, but it doesn't quit have the same impact as a photo. I think the closer rock formation in the foreground kind of gets in the way of things, as the background, which shows how high up you are, should be more the cente of attention.

A solid looking and very interesting landscape. I like the emphasis on the sky. Would suggest leveling the road at the bottom to enhance.

Hi Ben, what did you mean by "portrait" working better? A portrait crop?

Excellent work for a quick grab. The hand placement was ideal compositionally and very fortunate. You were a bit unluck with the shadows shielding her eyes from view, but I guess it also adds a sense of mystery. If desired, you could try some brightening of the eyes to see how much be recovered without washing them out. Background is a bit distracting, but not without your ability to control.

Nicely composed, David, with good subject placement in the frame and sharp focus. The backlighting understandably caused a bit of underexposure on the egret (?), but the details and colors are all there. I think you got get away with some brightening of the subject without any loss of image quality as long as you don't overdo it. You also might want to look into the banding around the top of the beak -- it may just be backlighting as opposed to artifacting but it is rather noticeable.

An almost imposible shot taken at only 1/80th of a second hand-held

in very deep shade. Little Rocky has two acorns in his mouth, the

outer one can be clearly seen held in place by his incisers.

Hi Mark. Another interesting bug shot. I particularly like the angle -- sort of like the last thing some poor aphid might see as it gets devoured. I have a suggestion which might enhance. And that would be to select all that white background and change the color to something more interesting. Pick any color which pleases you, but I think any color would work better that white. Mine choice would be a skyish looking bluish magenta.

Hi Blagoy. A tough shot to critique because of monitor brightness and gamma level differences, but on mine the background is a bit too overpowering and tends to distract from your lovely subject. I think the lighting on your subject would be sufficient for a good low key shot if not for the strong background, although my personal preference would be to lighten the highlight tones a bit on her. I suspect that will a little digital editing in these areas you could really improve this fine shot.

Actually Ken, I didn't even use more than half of the zoom power on my 300mm (digital, equiv to 480mm in film). If you zoom to close in, it's impossible to get anything in focus.

Thanks, Ken. Yes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Hi Ken. There is great a spot on the side street next to the Cyclone where you can manage to shoot over the fencing in three different directions if you have a long lens. I pre-focused the camera to a spot on the tracks and fired away in burst mode at just the right moment.

 

BTW, you are right about the women in the back, she sat through the entire ride without moving a muscle -- I photographed her in three different locations!

Screams of joy echo in the breeze from the famous Coney Island

Cyclone. Taken as a heavy fog rolled in, I was forced to increase my

ISO to 800 in order to get enough shutter speed. This resulted in a

little more noise than I would have preferred, but the expressions on

the faces of the people are priceless.