michelle_cox

I really like this shot. The colours are wonderful and there is an amazing feeling of distance for a 2D photo. My only complaint is the path(?) in the foreground curves to the left and keeps leading my eyes right out of the photo before I get to the mountains. Other than that, though, really great shot.

Adam - A bit too close for comfort. :) I'm not very good at judging distances, so I'm not sure how many feet. I was probably close enough to reach out and grab it if I leaned forward a bit.

This is a lovely photo. Very nice colours and a lot of interest. I would crop just a little bit on the right so the Needle is closer to the right and also to get rid of that bit of tree on the top right.

 

I'm not normally a big fan of digital frames, but I think the shadow works well here. Very nice.

Very lovely and serene blues. And the white of the boat is a nice contrast.

 

The boat and horizon are nearly centered, though. I know people often break the rule of thirds for artistic reasons, but I don't think it works here. Also, I think this would have worked better in a veritical format given the sail leading up and the light leading down.

I like the angle of it, but I think it's too centered. Also, the statue is a bit too small in the frame. From your comment, it's probably too late to go back and get in closer, but I think that would have helped.

Since the photo is too large to fit on my 1024x768 screen, I had to scroll to see it all. In doing so, I ended up "cropping" it. I played with that a bit and found I liked the photo much more when it was positioned so it's "cropped" just above the bottom most branch and just above the top of the tree.

 

The colours are very pleasing and the boats add an element of interest. I think the tree also helps give it some depth. Just a little cropping and it's quite a nice photo.

Wow... Over 9000 views! That's amazing...

 

Anyway, Christian, I did try and tone down that spot with the burn (or was it dodge - I get them mixed up) tool, but I guess it could use a bit more. I think I did a pretty good job with my fake "bokeh", too. :) It helps that the background was slightly out of focus to begin with, so I was just enhancing it and not totally faking it.

 

As to bee/wasp, I have no idea. I call them all bees. :) It very well could be a wasp.

 

Thanks for your comment,

Thank you all for your comments.

 

Tom - This is a new one for me as well. I never knew there were any bees that built a bachelor pad nest instead of living in a hive.

I know this isn't technically nature because of the mailbox, but it

was the closest category. :)

 

Anyway, I haven't been able to get out shooting like I wanted, but I

did make it as far as across the street to get some pictures of this

little guy today. I wish I'd been just a bit farther back so the wing

wasn't so close to the bottom, but at least I got the whole thing in

there.

 

I don't normally do insect photos. My little digicam really isn't up

to the task. The "bokeh" is faked in PSE, I'm afraid. The bee was

really there, though. :) No cloning or anything drastic like that.

 

So, what do you think?

Having her face cut off like that is bothersome. I think this might have made a nice vertical with the woman and the man behind her both in it. He's got an interesting look on his face, and the crossed arms make it seem that he disapproves.

Took me a while to find the original. Back when I did this, I didn't bother to keep any sort of link between them. Anyway, I'm going to attempt to attach it to this comment so you can see for yourself.

 

Glad you like it. I don't consider them to really be photos anymore after they're solarized, but I keep them in my portfolio for a bit of fun. It's amazing what solarization can do to an otherwise boring photo. :)

Really? Well, I do apologize, then. I meant no offense to your cat. I honestly thought it was some sort of distortion.

 

I do stick by my feeling that the tail would be better completely in the photo. :)

Well, let's see, the grey colouring is nice... Oh, wait, were we supposed to critique the cat or the photo? :)

 

Seriously, unless you have one funny looking cat, that perspective is out of whack. I'm no expert, but I know how much you zoom the lens affects distortion of facial features.

 

The lighting is nice, though. I like how it sort of curves around the cat. Might want to try and get the tail all the way in next time.

Hmmm... I don't usually comment unless I have suggestions for improvement, but your question looked lonely there by itself. :)

 

It is interesting, and pretty. I like how the parallel lines go up the diagonal of the photo. I can't think of anything that would have made this shot better. Too abstract for my tastes, though. Maybe there's just not enough people who like the abstract ones?

Ooooh... I like this one. The dark tombstones makes it look really creepy. Framing the sun like that in the tree is a cool effect.

 

I don't like the border you have on there, though. It took me a couple looks to realize it was a border. I think the photo would be better without it because the jagged line distracts the eyes.

 

The other thing is that pole in the lower left corner keeps pulling my eye down there. I like the image better with the left cropped just enough to take out the pole.

 

Wonderful spooky image. :)

Does it mean it sucks? No. It means it's average. There are hundreds (thousands?) of photos uploaded every day and a limited number of people wiling to write a comment. The really good ones get comments and sometimes the really bad ones. The ones in the middle tend to fall through the cracks.

 

This is a pretty photo, but most sunrise/sunsets are. There just isn't anything there to make it really stand out. It's hard to make an outstanding photo who's main subject is the colour of the sky. I've got a ton of average sunset photos to show that. :)

 

So don't get discouraged by the lack of comments. Just keep shooting and keep posting until you get something that can grab the attention of those elusive few commentors.

 

Ok, enough general advice. What about the photo? One thing I've found is that you either need to have something really interesting as a sillouette or have details in the shadows. Getting details in the shadows during a sunset is damn hard, so I've started looking for interesting sillouettes. :) Plants, unfortunately, usually don't cut it.

 

Another thing is that the plants are growing right out of the frame. If you'd moved the camera up a bit to lose the featureless ground and catch the top of the plants, I think you'd have had a stronger photo.

 

All in all, what you have here is a pretty photo but not a "Wow!" photo. Keep looking at those sunrises/sunsets and see if you can find something as pretty as the colours to pair with them.

Honestly, I think the difficulty in capturing lightning makes it mean more to you than it does to a non-involved viewer. I had the same thing happen with rainbows. When I finally caught one, I thought it was the most wonderful thing. Looking back on it makes me realize that the photo isn't all that special. It's just an ordinary scene that happens to have a rainbow in it.

 

In your case, you don't have a scene at all. You have some pretty lightning, but nothing really there to make a photo. I hope this doesn't come across as hurtful because I don't mean it to be. I'm just suggesting you try to look at the photo as if you hadn't put the work into capturing it. What is there that would excite someone who wasn't involved in the process?

FYI - This photo is much larger than what should be posted and that makes it difficult to view since you have to scroll to see it all.

 

It's an interesting photo, but I think you might have taken it too soon. Without your description, I wouldn't be able to tell what this boy was doing. It looks almost like he's dancing. There isn't a really clear sense of movement here. Maybe he's just waving at someone. It's not a bad photo, but I think picking another monent could have made it better.

Beautiful view and a nice deep blue sky. There's two problems that I can see. One is that your mountains are right in the middle of the photo. I've heard that it's best in mountain shots to have them close to the top because it makes them more powerful, but in this case I think the sky is prettier than the forground. I'd try cropping a bit of that off.

 

The other problem is the tree on the left. It's distracting, and makes the mountains seem smaller because it's taller than they are. I'm not sure what to do about that. Cropping the bottom will get rid of some of it, but not all. You could try cloning it out, if you aren't opposed to that sort of thing. Or maybe even crop off the left side. I tried putting my hand over it and it doesn't look bad that way.

Quite a darling kitty. Shame that ear is cut off. With the head tilted that way, you could almost get the two ears and the chin on the thirds points.

Interesting view of the boat. I like images that take a different approach to common things.

 

Normally, centered images are bad, but in this case, I think it works. Unfortunately, it's not _quite_ centered, which distracts. The right side is cropped closer than the left side.

 

The other thing is that the pole is going right out of the picture. I think this would have been a much stronger image if there was some sky above the pole.

The middle one that Kohda Kahn posted made me do a double take. Over towards the left, is that an alien? :) Ok, I know it's probably someone with one of those baskets on their head, but from this distance, it looks like the stereotypical big-headed alien.

 

As to the original, I think it's wonderful. I like silouettes a lot, and sunsets even more. Great job! I'm not anti-crop by any stretch, but put me in the no-crop camp for this one. I like the original best of all the crops.

Ok, I'm gonna give you some advice based on assumptions here. :) Jeremy says your photo is 1600x1200, which is a typical camera resolution, your description says this is your first digital camera. This leads me to believe that you're new at this and sent the image that came out of your camera without resizing it. But you state you have a 4mpix camera and 1600x1200 equates to 2.1mpix. So, if I was right about you sending it straight from what the camera gave you, you've got the resolution set down on your camera. Don't do that. If you absolutely must save storage space, increase the compression. Don't ever knock down the resolution.

 

If I'm wrong, then just ignore me. :)

 

As to the photo, it's pretty, but lose most of the greenery. Maybe keep a touch on the bottom for a splash of colour, but crop most of it out. Next time, get the subject a little farther away from the center. It's not perfectly centered, which is good, but it could use to be a little more over. I think part of the problem is that the cloud that sticks up combines with the lighthouse as the subject, and then it _is_ centered.

 

Overall, though, it's a good shot. Just needs a touch of work.

Thanks for your comment. That's a good point about the stump going into the horizon. I hadn't noticed that. The main thing I noticed is that the stumps were right in the middle of the photo. Unfortunately, where I was standing didn't offer much choice.

 

I'll go back down there when the whether warms up and try the photo again, paying more attention to where the stumps fall in releation to the horizon. Maybe I can make a better photo.

 

Thanks,

I just came back from spending a week in Denver visiting my family. Your photo looks better than the city does! That is amazing... Such clarity. My shots all look smoggy. Where did you take the photo from? It looks like you're higher up. Some building? I couldn't find any place with a good view of the downtown that wasn't on a highway. (For some reason, they don't like you stopping there. :)

 

Again, wow... Simply wow...