Laurie1

Thank you Alain.

my Best

Laurie

Alain, thank you so much for your generous comment. This is one of my favourites as it is one of those moments where one looks up and sees something that you know will work. When the imagination and the reality come together, so to speak. I was lucky too, for a moment later the dog was gone.

Thanks once again.

Best regards

Laurie

My sincere apologies for taking so long to reply Ruud. I really appreciate you taking the time to look. Thank you for your lovely comment also. These walls play wiht the light in a beautiful way and I never tire of trying to capture it.

Best regards.

Laurie

Hello Ruud, I don't have your experience nor output but as I found your image interesting, will put down my thoughts.

As the others have said it is a touching scene and fits in your "Together" collection beautifully. I especially like the woman's expression and her body language towards the man. I also like the horizontal lines formed by the road/sidewalk and arrows in the lower half of the frame. The arrows create a nice tension in that they are pointing against the direction of the bike.

One thing that draws my eye in a negative way is the minimal space between the people's heads and the top frame. It makes me feel they are cramped and this is accentuated by the woman's posture which seems to be bending to avoid the frame. (Mind you - perhaps you had intended this :) ).

Thanks for reading.

Best regards

Laurie

Hi Chris. Let me first say that I am no portrait or fashion photographer, so I'll leave things like pose etc to those more experienced than I.

There is a couple of things I would say. Firstly, though it's a bit hard to tell with the smaller image, the focus seems to be on her right shoulder or the tree and not on the eyes.

Secondly and this is just my opinion, your model is in shade where as the background, though nicely out of focus, is in bright sunlight. For me this draws my eyes away from your subject and towards the brightness further back. The ground is also fairly bright and while this contrasts with the black clothes, your model's arm and leg tend to disappear into it.

I hope this may be of some help.

Best regards

Laurence.

Saad, this is wonderful. Your subject really stands out from the crowd and not only because they are out of focus. Here you have a nicely dressed woman against a background of trousers and shirts. The tram lines lead our eyes right to her and then beyond and then return us to her.

What i like most is the focused expression on her face as if she is intent on following her shadow. The lighting is beautiful and makes  fine back lighting.

Thanks for showing this.

Best regards

Laurie

Hi Saad,

this is the first time I visited your gallery and you have some really interesting images.

However this image doesn't grab me. Again this is just from my point of view, but I think there two issues. I think the tight framing and the very narrow DOF tend to work against the idea of "aloneness". To me aloneness needs some reference or counterpoint - here there is no space for her to be alone in and the figures in the back ground are too indistinct to be "separate" from. Off course this is only from a composition point of view - there are other elements which suggest being alone.

The other issue for me is the out of focus areas on each side adjacent to the in focus areas. Probably it is because I am a photographer (albeit an amateur :) ) I notice this. For me it would look better if the whole plane of focus was in focus.

Hope you don't mind me being frank and critiquing your image.

Best regards

Laurie

Hi Jose,

Forgive me not writing in Spanish but my only language is English.

Your image has a strong impact and caught  my attention. I think the colours are wonderful and bring out your coyote very well. You have very good eye contact which is important and I like the way you filled the frame.

For my part there are two things I would suggest. Although the eyes are not particularly out of focus I think it would be better if the eyes rather than the nose were in exact focus - though I know this is a problem with photographing anything with a long nose and shallow DOF :). The other thing is the cut off ear, for me it is a distraction as my eye wonders to it continuously.

However all that being said I think it is an impressive shot.

Best regards

Laurie

Hi Paul.

Not being an expert in bird photography, but having tried it I can appreciate how difficult capturing birds in flight can be. You have done a really good job here in my opinion. The critical bit, the eye is nice and sharp and has a catch light to add to it. Then there is the added interest of the fish which is both nicely shaped and because it is glossy contrast with the feathers.

My only suggestion would to give this majestic bird a bit more space - for me it feels a bit too cramped against the edges and the frame a bit to heavy which for contradicts the soaring of the bird.

Cheers

Laurie

Hello Rajat.

I like the subject very much and it lends itself to the nice B&W treatment you have given it. I agree with Mike that the background has something about it. However for me the lamp gets a bit lost in foliage - particularly the base. For me I think it would have worked better if the shot was taken lower so that the lamp was against the lighter green further away. But regardless of that I think it is a fine atmospheric image.

Best regards

Laurie

Such vibrant colours Alain and nicely composed.

Best regards

Laurie

Hi Jennifer,

Pictures of cats on the net are prolific to say the least. So, even as someone who likes cats, it is hard to come across an image that is photographically strong. I find this image one of them. The B&W works very well in my opinion and the tones are nice. But the strongest factor and the one I like most is the framing.  You also have the eye sharp, which is important, and the whiskers which adds to it.

The only thing I would otherwise comment on could be adjusted in post-processing. Just on the edge of frame next to her left eye (our right) there seems to be a vertical band that is lighter. It is not terrible important but at least for me it is a bit distracting.

Well done and keep learning!

Laurence

Thank you Alain. I very much appreciate you taking the time to comment. What drew me to this scene was the quality of light on the lady - and yes I had ideas of the "light of God" too. It took some time to balance the light and dark areas as they are so extreme so I am very glad you like the balance I have struck.

my best regards

Laurie

Hello Nikita,

Very nice atmosphere and composition. You chose the time and conditions well - I don't think it would have worked as well if the buildings in the background had not been softened by the mist. My only two suggestions would have been to have taken a step back so as to include the top of the lamp and depending on what software you were using I would have also increased the saturation of yellow and orange to make the lamp light a bit warmer - but that's just my preference.

Thanks for showing.

Laurie

Hello Jorge,

Lots of colour, lovely smile and good eye contact. I generally don't take portraits myself so my experience in critiquing them is limited,  so I will limit myself to one point. With such a flamboyant dress I think you need to give it a little more space - not too much but a little. Just enough to incorporate the sleeves and a little of the dark background.

Thanks

Regards

Laurie

Hi Gerolamo,

I like your image very much. I particularly like that the background has a horizontal grain pattern while most of the foreground objects have vertical grain or patterns - it's a nice contrast which I like very much. I would like to mention three things.

In my opinion the clock is a little out of place amongst the other items. On the other hand it could be seen as central focus point - of course it is subjective but for me it is the odd one out.

I think the image would look better than it already does if you had slightly more contrast (in tone) between the foreground objects and the background. (I notice that most of your other still lifes are very contrasty) so you maybe trying something altogether different - which is always a god thing. I also think that taking the shot from a slightly higher point of view would have worked better. In the current image they look slightly two dimensional.

Just my take. In all I like it alot.

Best regards

Laurie

Hello Alain,

I like the colours in your image though to me it looks very slightly under-exposed, though this could just be my monitor. For me, when I look at your image I see two subjects - the cricketers and the University building. My attention goes from one to the other but more often to the building as it is dramatic in style and stands out against that blue sky. Of course it is all a matter of intention and the way I see it maybe very different to how you intend it to be seen.

I might also say that I find quite a few of the images in your portfolio quite impressive.

Best regards

Laurie

Thank you Jim. Sorry for the delay in replying. The light was really nice that day. Thanks again

Laurie

Hi Andrew, unfortunately it doesn't seem like a lot of critiquing is done except by a dedicated and helpful few (and I don't count myself amongst them as my contributions are erratic). Anyway, on to your image.

To begin with I like the rather stark and rather forbidding look of your image. The foreground is dramatic and interesting. What I like also is the "saddle" with it's dark patches and the arched main peak lead us further into the picture - down into the valley beyond. The clouds make a suitably dramatic background. What my eye keeps wanting though is some more contrast and detail in that middle peak - something to separate it a bit more from the misty areas further away and also, in some way, join it to the foreground subject.

For me the vignetting at the top edges is a bit too heavy and this may have also contributed to the somewhat distracting halo on the main peak. Otherwise a dramatic piece of work in my opinion.

Best regards

Laurie

Tom, this is an interesting image with a story. I like the "layers" of people - the two gents close up, then the guy looking at the camera a little way down and finally just behind him, the guy standing. However, to me, the image has two focuses - 1 the people at the cafe and 2 the leading line of the pillars. That line of pillars lead our eyes away from your subject and the story in my opinion. I would try a few different crop options. Personally I would try cropping to the 3rd pillar down. Thanks for showing.

Laurie

For me this is an image about contrasts and contradictions. The first thing my eyes rest on is the swirling curves of the tyre tracks and meandering foot prints in the snow. But then I see that they are contained by the more conservative straight lines of the parking bay, the fences, the building and the bench. The rather haphazard (maybe even arrogant?) parking position of the car at the centre is in direct contrast with the formally parked cars at the top.
There is a feeling of transience here too. The people and cars that were here that are now gone - elsewhere. Even the central car doesn't look as if it will stay long (this is also in contrast to the static cars at the top). All these lines, this evidence of people, is leading in and/or out of the frame to some other place.

"And, perhaps what first caught my attention and keeps pulling my eye back like a strong magnet, are the illogical circular tracks. Whether I try to explain them with arriving vehicles or departing vehicles, they make no sense." - ML M

This is another reason I find this image interesting. It's a sort of puzzle, a mystery. Why is the car parked so haphazardly. Where has the driver gone (I am assuming LH drive) that they are happy to leave the car like that. Why is there a smudge of bare ground where a car used to be yet no smudges for the other tyre tracks. And more..... It makes for a nice puzzle. Not that it couldn't be worked out but I like the mystery.