timkeller

I love this, as I tend to love images that straddle the line between abstraction and realism. But this is so original, and smoke itself straddles the line of realism. The lighting is impressive against the equally impressive black background. Beautifully seen, lit, composed, and processed, Matt.

Ah, Mehmet! I'm not surprised to see you with a Photograph of the Week. With your streetscapes, your environmental portraits (street captures?) have always been strong; this image joins your best. The window light, shallow depth of field, warm earth tones, and vivid 3D effect make this gentleman pop out of the frame. Then it's about subject matter: the man, his glasses, his intent concentration on the news, all while surrounded -- very remotely for us -- by the hubbub of a crowded cafe and people with other things on their minds. It's a portrait of a man of integrity and learning, a man engaged in the world. Your top-quality technical skills -- and your way with people -- have again produced a lovely and engaging image. Congratulations.

Simple but effective. The almost-abstract geometric shapes and the diagonal composition work well. I appreciate how much you've achieved with so little -- wonderful.

Congratulations on an exciting capture, well executed. 

This one caught my eye out of the first few dozen in the critique forum -- a great strength. Closer examination, then, seems a bit disappointing. Wonderful composition and texture, with amazing light, but the bush is out of focus and the spot near top right is probably a bush but looks like a dust spot on the lens.

This shot calls for as much depth of field as you can manage (f/16, on a tripod as necessary) and the bush (tree) has to be in focus. 

Applying your wonderful eye for composition, and getting such great light, you obviously have more great shots ahead. Enjoy.

Matt, you are such a master that I can't imagine why you're not consumed with so many professional accounts (ad shots in Vanity Fair, et al) that you don't have time to remain such a fixture on photo.net. Here, the extraordinarily warm tones and the lighting over an evocative still-life arrangement place the photo among your many masterpieces.

I assume this is Nik's Silver Efex Pro, and indeed, what fun it is. Great choices here in taking this contemporary scene back in time. I find the degree of sharpness the giveaway: old photos were never this sharp. The combination of Jesus and barbeque...my God, Dave, it's enough to make me momentarily regret leaving California.

All the elements -- lines, textures, colors -- work together nicely here, creating a pleasing composition that draws the eye to the blue bucket and the flowers. I scanned dozens of critique forum submissions before this caught my eye and became one of only two I examined more closely and critiqued. Well seen.

Probably too busy, with too much going on, but compositionally it's held together nicely by the man reaching in the center. It's been five years since I last stayed in Chichi and this photo makes me miss it! Los colores!

While it lacks a center-of-interest and composition, it evokes Cezanne's blocks of geometric shapes and colors, which interests me and draws my eye. 

Saint Francis de Asis Church at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Arroyo Seco, New Mexico

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I'm thrilled to encounter this fascinating work of yours in the Editors' Picks for Textural Photography. It well deserves to be there. I've long been fascinated with Tero's work in this genre of moving camera. I've tried it without success. Congratulations on yours.

This one's fraught with peril, given its busyness and mulitude of lines, but you've unified it beautifully. The eye is drawn right down that hall to the end of the faux-tunnel. That your daughter appears to be an adult only makes the ceiling seem that much higher, which I think adds to the power of the image. Impressive work, Jean-Marc.

This one's a gem, Dick, with sumptuous black-and-white rendering and that powerful composition of diagonal lines...wonderful!

This is so alluring! The clarity of both water and sky is captured so well (so clearly!) and the arrangement of lines leads strongly to your mother and daughter, where you want our eyes to come to rest. Very effective photograph that makes me want to run away to an island.

I enjoy the colors here: it's easy to imagine them placed in vertical crayon strokes by a child.

Having now done photo shoots with horses and dogs, I am simply awed. The technical perfection, particularly in the flash tour de force, is impressive enough...but the dog! If I may borrow your hat, I will doff it in your honor.

I like it, Alex --- thanks.

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Thanks, Mike. Since the image will be included with an article of mine in Western Horseman magazine, I cleaned up the "bungee" (and bit of building), since it seemed likely that a lot of magazine viewers would make the same assumption. So, the comments here led, as they so often do, to a likely improvement in the image. Thanks.

It's not a bungee: the end of his lariat is wrapped with green string, then an orange end fabric, for a grip. This sixteen-year-old has been making a living with horse and rope since he was eight years old.

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