james_oneill

Not wishing to disagree with Owen, but I'd say this was another beautiful image among many.

But typing this with the picture looking back at it me... it does have something about it... I think it is the eye contact with the camera, and the slight tension with the hand and the way the face is turned.

Aaargh !! Now I don't know if I should agree with him. It's a great photo... please don't ever ask me to rank your pictures from best to worst !!

P.s. I linked one of yours before to an Anne Clark poem... the fact you've called this alive and that tension makes me think of this one of hers.

It's all magnified. Violent

Intensified: Vibrant.

And it Roars: "I'm alive"

And so sure

With heart breaking

And so sure....

 

This is the best pose and lighting in this folder. If you're going to nit pick there is a little too much light on the leg, and the models left foot would be better pointing the toe (rather than showing the sole of the foot). But still a good shot (IMHO)

Even gave them their own folder :-)

 

Personally I would have toned this a less yellow, and maybe tweaked the bright and contrast very slightly [fx... slight delay] as shown.

 

Still nice.

Reminds me of Tamara's work, which is as complimentary thing as I will say about a picture this week.

Nice pose, lighting and tones. The frame is a matter of taste, but I think it suits the picture.

You'll have to take my word for it that she is (mostly) nude out of

shot. I just feel that this one HAS something, comments very welcome.

Anyone want to express a view.

I guess most of us feel the need to shoot a macro now and then. I

have a nest of bumble bees at the back of my house, and they fly

round to the lavender bushes by the front door, there were dozens of

them. Trying to get the focus right is difficult in the extreme,

about 1 in 8, maybe 1 in 10 shots is in focus. Still this one is, and

I quite like the way the composition turned out.

I'm surprised this hasn't got a better score for originality. It's a very striking image... It's a bit unsettling though.

 

It's an unusual angle, not exactly flattering, but this is one of those unusual nude/portraits, where your attention goes to the eyes rather than the body.

Actually this is a very popular dive site in the Red Sea. I'm hoping to dive there in September. This text appears on a number of websites.

 

"Yolanda Reef, is named after the vessel which sank here in 1980, depositing its cargo of bathroom fixtures and utilities.... Although much of the ship has fallen over the drop-off, a quantity of the cargo remains for the amusement of the visiting divers and is of interest to photographers"

 

So what *do* you do when confronted with a pile of sunken toilets ? It's a popular place but [Doug] what is the picture that most of wouldn't have taken ... it's a bit like trying to get a new angle on the Eifel Tower isn't it ? When diving, should one carry a small yellow plastic fish to insert in the scene to add colour and a centre of interest ? [Gee Michael, it's good enough for a magazine cover, but not for POTW ? Our standards are high!].

 

I've seen a fair few shots of this dive site, and I have to say this is one of the better ones. I'll be VERY pleased if I get anything better.

 

There's other good work in Johannes' portfolio too, including the nudes that someone was sniffy about above.

very good lighting. What's the mark on the shoulder blade nearer the camera ? I think it's male but its immaterial really. Very nice, physique, good lighting, great result.

I find quite a lot of my best are when the model isn't striking a pose. I like the composition of this one better than the other which you put up for critique.

Very good, the shape/composition, the little bit of blue in a scene without much colour and just the simplicity of it.

 

Just on the DOF comment above... You might want to experiment with both more and Less DOF - I think you want the distant part of the ladder either sharp, or totally out of focus; but you'd have to try both as well as in-between like this to decide which works best.

and without the Capture 1 work...

Agree with Sally, it does look like a scene-of-crime picture. The pattern on the skin adds to that.

This was published as #1 graveyard shot in Digital Camera Magazine [uK] June 2004.

I also put it into the No words forum with some words - some people won't follow the rules

The words were So quiet here by Anne Clark

So quiet here

So hushed and stilled

So silent here

Such longing calmed

and tempered here

So quiet here

Swirling shades of evening

circling the light

Last escaping traces of the day

streak the sky -

paint in water light

blends warm

and breath of breeze

and endless

endless

reaching here

So quiet here

So hushed and stilled

So silent here

Winding down

to stopping

gently

here

 

Like this, she reminds me of Bardot ...

Critique ? Well the depth of field, the composoition using the diagonal lines of tombstones - with the critical one located by rule of thirds, the two colours(green and white) with the flag adding a splash of something else ... all good textbook stuff.

 

Other people might want to say if the "flag-on-the-grave" is a cliche and, given that the date on the grave is within the last few years, if they'd expect his family have something to say about using it like this ?

Seeing the comments and scores, I'm in a minority here, but I think this is below your usual standard. There's nothing wrong with it - the lighting's fine, the model's nice, and the pose isn't boring. But Most of your pictures are dripping with style and by comparison this one is a bit flat.

The combination is quite good, the other poppies and mono-sky somehow didn't fit properly, these bits go better - maybe because the building covers more of the join.

Faults ? The grass on the right is a bit greener than the rest (maybe clone some poppies in ?) - the verticals on the building say it was shot closer than it appears using a wide angle lens.

Sooner or later someone will ask you to read http://www.photo.net/photo-posting-guidelines

The final image was tweaked with Capture1 LE. The white blance and exposure were adjusted and the picture cropped slightly. This is the original ...

Very nicely done.

I think the original picture was at least OK (have a look at

this or

this or this, you can see I like this kind of picture !) but the effect is over-done. It's not a bad effect, but it needs to be done more subtly.

Compared with the other one you've put up for critique, this is a better burst - but it is has also made you go for a square composition, the other one looks a bit pinched. City skyline + water + fireworks isn't exactly original, but it's well done - and the border is right too.