stephen_jones4

This is a really wonderful shot - the kind of image that makes me want to keep on taking photographs.

Very enjoyable. Even better perhaps with a bit of the top cropped to reduce the highlight from window and up the feeling of claustrophobia. It's a bit like Martin Parr but with compassion and affection. Makes me think fondly of my dad and how he couldn't stand attention. Cheers.

I like "biogob"! Pretty fabulous bokeh here.

this is a beautifully tender picture.

I love this.

Very nice composition and perfectly timed. Witty. Very well done. I like the format too.

This whole presentation is very good indeed. I would be very proud if this were my work.

I thnk this image works very well for being in b+w - who needs another colour image of a peacock?

The contrast is about right on my mac with lacie monitor. The image does look a bit "etched" however - over-sharpened?

Hope that helps.

I just love this. Superb. I'm not religious but I have a whole load of time for the Sally Army. This guy looks great - life affirming, totally un-sanctimonious. Technically the tones are excellent and the exposure very fine (great hand holding too) - well done indeed. (btw, that summilux looks like a keeper!)

Really liked it as is. Seems exceptional quality (on my monitor)

Just to say that I entirely disagree with Marc G's comments both about this shot and the shot of your sister's eye - the tonality is exquisite - maybe he needs a new monitor. These two images are very beautiful. It seems that love of subject is important to making fine images.

you could crop it, loose the warmth and get both subjects to turn to face the camera with a warm smile but that would, of course, ruin it - destroy the theatricality and turn it into a cliché. This may be what you want...

This is the kind of picture I dislike as a rule. This shot, however, is exceptional. I love the subdued colour palette, the theatrical backdrop, the "Shanghai" smokey tones, the psychological complexity (the complicity of one, the staged look of the other). This is a fine photograph - a brilliant portrait, stage shot whatever. Very well done - wouln't look at all out of place in the monograph of one of the greats.

beautiful colours. Why is the name in top right reversed? Is the whole image reversed?

Really a fabulous picture. On a hand print (which would obviosly, easily be worth doing(!)) I'd have the yellow sign and the 2 fellows in the back ground darkened a bit.

Nice one.

It's like a beautiful woman, yawning to great the dawn. Very nice. Well done

Very beautiful potentially - a bit spoiled by central framing. Is there any more space around the edges? Can you place the head/face somewhere other than straight in the middle? Nevertheless, a lovely moment.

Isolated, lonely - lovely. A really great shot - you don't need to take street shots up close - this works brilliantly - I'm projecting all kinds of possible stories on to this kid - precisely because of the space you've left my mind to wander.

I'd probably crop the left a bit as there is a slight balance issue and the white poster/leaflet attached to the post steals my eye a little, but that's easily managed.

still think that the image is a triumph - I know from bitter (!) experience how difficult it is to produce a shot of this style which elevates itself above the snap shot - perhaps I'm being over protective of the photographer - I dare say he needs no such help...:-) My remark about landscape photography was to allude to the distinction between a photographic field where light can and should be waited for / neutral graduated / polarised and one where that kind of waiting is not appropriate/not on the cards - I was making the comment in response to one of the earlier posters who bemoaned the lack of subject incident light - I really am very sorry if that seems rude but I think that kind of comment misses the point - after all you could always stick them in a studio with some red heads and get them to adopt the pose again - heck you could even get the bride to breast feed the kid (oops, irony again)

As far as ignoring detractors is concerned I simply meant that anyone who says "I don't get it" or "it has no value"/ "it is not composed" is so far off the mark as to not be worth listening to. It might be that some photogs feel landscape's the only appropriate subject for photography. That's fine - but I wouldn't turn to them for advice on portrait photography. If somone were to offer constructive advice/criticism that would be quite different: "denigration" is another matter - this image clearly does not deserve it.

Funnily enough, and contrary to common sense, I would have thought that the way to nurture an artistic vision is almost certainly to ignore criticism and remain true to your work - listen to others and you'll certainly end up commercially viable but you run the risk of becoming rather bland...! (and yes, I know that rather makes a nonsense of putting your work up for criticism but there you go...

I would strongly recommend ignoring anyone who denigrates this picture - it seems to me to be of a much higher standard than many of the show cased photos on this site (some of which are simply well executed cliches). It puts me especially in mind of Stan Barlow's (??) "A kind of loving"