stephen hazelton

You have found one of the two curses of waterfall shots: The Log. (The other being: Tourists). Now, it isn't too obtrusive here, but still looks a bit out of place. You have some excellent green moss on the rocks- I would be tempted to crop a bit off the bottom ungreen rock and show more waterfall at the top. The water blur is well done, although common.

I too like the effect. I'm not sure it would work as well if you didn't have the surroundings black around the bag.

 

I see a face on the left side of the bag? Looks kind of neat, actually.

The background is okay for showing place, but it would work better if the fence wasn't there.

 

Assuming that cotton candy is the normal pink stuff, I don't know but what this wouldn't be better in color.

I like the lighting. The shot has a timeless look that could have been taken anytime in the last century.

I like the pose and the setting. My first thought when seeing the thumbnail was of the locomotive museum- not a very private setting there, though!

 

There appears to be some flatness, maybe some dust- is this a scanned print? It's fairly minor, but there.

I like the background and background lighting here. I'd prefer not to have the picture on the front of the shirt- think plain stripes would be better.

I like the sky and the scene here, but think it would work better with more direct light on the landscape. I can't help thinking that this would look good in color as well.

Looking at the thumbnail, it seemed the shot would be better with a darker background to bring out the flowers. But when I look at the larger picture, I like it the way it is- viewing the subject as the bee rather than the flowers- and the light flowers/ light background work great to emphasize the bee.

I really like this one- the dark sky works great, good lighting on the subject.

Keith- a note on set-up if you want to plagiarize it (feel free, by the way)- I was trying to get a shot looking up from the chessmen's point of view. I used the dining room table for this shot. I took the center leaf out of the table, and put the tripod there. I folded the chess board in half to get it out of the way of the camera. I had planned to use my 24mm lens, which focuses quite close, but when I tried that it, I couldn't get Mark's head in the shot, and had to go wider to do that. Only when I did, it showed the edge of the table and bent chess board at the edges, so I had to crop that out. Done properly, I would have arranged a nice background to the shot as well. All in all, it probably would have worked just as well to just set the camera on the board.

 

I'm no chess expert, but I did actually set the chess men up and play them to a point where they were distributed around a bit. So maybe they aren't in a "good" position, but they are actually in a playable position. Mark was just giving me a thoughtful look, as by the time he got there, half the board was gone.

I didn't even notice the reflection until I read the critique above.

 

You have two shots of this lady, and I think this one works the best. Her skin is rather mottled, and the B&W minimizes it. She doesn't have the wrinkled sun-worn look where you'd want to show every last detail, and I think this is a good compromise. The tree works fine for background, a bit different.

A neat combination of lady and wheel. I'd rather not have the bottom blur, it just doesn't look natural- the Lensbaby look.

I wonder what stories these places could tell. There were likely people born in this house, childhood memories of it- perhaps all past now. And hard luck? Perhaps. But perhaps they did well and moved to a better house- you never know.

I like the haze here (gives it depth), and the fan-shaped lines radiating out.

Had you called it "My cat on the bed", I think the reaction to it would have been different, and that, I suspect, is the basis of any low ratings you may have. Never let that interfere with your photography, and don't be afraid to share- as you see, there are also very positive reactions to it. I, too, noticed his eyes, which look as alert as ever. And may I say, an excellent name for a cat.

Excellent lighting. I like the way the nearer slopes frame the mountains.

I like the sweep of the stairs up to the top. But the shadow is a stronger element that doesn't fit the sweep. I think it would be improved if caught at a different time of day, or on a cloudy day, to remove the shadow, then perhaps bump the contrast up some on the stairs.

I don't think the shot works well, due to obvious flash and outfit that doesn't work well for the pose. However, that is an uncommon pose, and I think it would have some promise with more conventional lighting, and different clothing.

Being quite elderly at 45, I distinctly remember this stuff, and still in fact use a similar product from Kodak. It dates from the old days, and had the distinct disadvantage of having to point your camera at a scene in order to generate an image, rather than just painting in the pixels later as is the current rage.

I really like the false color here- like a whole different park. I first saw the thumbnail and wondered if this was taken by moonlight.

From an outing to Dallas a while back.

While passing a cemetery, I noticed this statue and the light on the

clouds, so I had to stop and take a shot.

I saw your "lowest rating" post where you didn't have a comment on the shot- here it is!

 

I'd say lack of color and low contrast killed the shot in the ratings. Very sharp saturated colorful flowers are common here on photo.net, so there's some pretty stiff competition in the flower category. I see you have a shot right next to this one in your portfolio where the red just jumps out at you. The contrast and/or saturation can be boosted easily enough, but the white flower is a bit harder to change.

 

The background is out-of-focus, but still is a major part of the shot. I think perhaps a more colorful (ie, greener) or more uniform background might have helped.

 

The leaves at bottom center and bottom right just sort of stick into the frame- they would be better either cropped or composed out, or included more fully.

 

And have some consolation knowing my lowest rated shot was lower than your lowest rated shot!

I love it!

That scene is just waiting for a Holga to come along- a simple colorful composition. I'd suggest cropping off (or rather, composing out) the right side, just concentrate on the red, yellow, blue, and blue reflection.

 

The scene is fine without a person, but would work well with a person, too.