joewhite

I like the different elements here; the misty fog in the background, the blurred green in the reflection, the splashes of color from the house and boat doubled in the water and the partially hidden house. The little dock kind of distracted me a little but not enough to keep the photo from being very enjoyable.

Love the fog.

Very nice natural abstract . Just kidding, but it makes me wonder if someone is breathing through that reed...

Very excellent fog, I sense that you deliberately left the upper section a bit darker to highlight the ray of sunshine. The overall effect makes my eyes wander from the brighter part to the bright-in-darkness part and back again. I also like the spots of red from the lower foliage.

+1 for what Rick said. A compelling and strong image.

I like your treatment of the scene. He does look very thoughtful and the angle of the shot adds to that perception.

Nice job with the night shot. The reflections of the lights on those two vehicles is a great counterpoint to the otherwise ordinary street scene. Even with high ISO I'm not certain my hands would have been as steady.

I sent you an email with HDR as part of the subject title. I hope you'll have a chance to look at it.

Thank you.

Beautiful lighting and background.

The lighting and the ground colors combine very well and I particularly like the busy grasses on either side of the path. The clouds and the slate which seemingly fades and disappears in the distance are also quite appealing.

Fantastic abstract! Colors and pattern are excellent.

Thanks for your comment on my photo, John.

I hope to see more of these types from you.

That's a great legacy to share with your children; even more so because of the unique and creative way you have chosen. I can see you've been practicing this technique and it's paying off.

ps I'm going to follow you, you're catching up to Ruud, a terrific photographer, in the 90 day category!

All the technical discussion is out of my league; I'm not demeaning it, just a fact.

I don't know anything about photography judging either, but if you want the "common man" opinion, I'd have to say this photo is the most compelling of the three. For me (and perhaps a judge or two), this gives the sense of being immersed in the scene, as though I were standing on those rocks rather than simply viewing a representation.

I do think the sky at the horizon could be darker without overdoing it, but that certainly does not diminish my enjoyment of it.

Good luck with your contest.

I personally don't care for the trees but also can see that it would not have been possible to get this otherwise splendid shot unless you develop wings.

If it is as difficult to get all the varieties of light as it would seem, you have an outstanding result. Very beautiful.

We've almost run out of superlatives for this and rightly so. Very beautiful shot, I especially like the texture on the foreground rocks and the misty horizon against the morning clouds.

You have several very fine photos of this general area, Kings Canyon, but this one falls a little short. The slope on the right is too dark and the one on the left is a bit bright. The valley between, where I'm guessing a small stream runs, leads the eye to the center distance, but the mountain there is a little hazy and is lost against the sky.

You didn't include any exif info so it's not possible to tell what f-stop you used. A lot of good photographers (not me, I mean others) use small apertures for this type of scene, f16 to f22.

I'm sorry if this seems harsh, I am not trying to diminish you because as I said, you have taken some very beautiful photos of this sort of landscape and I know you will take many more.

Very nice, I like the trails.

As much as I highly recommend my technique of closing my eyes, pressing the shutter and praying, you seem to have arrived at a workable solution. The last time I ever took fireworks photos was with my film camera, which had only manual controls. Tripod, f8, 11 or 16 (no partial stops available) and held the shutter open from the first time I saw the flare of the impending pyrotechnic for anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds, the longer times obviously gave a lot of trails which had some interest as well.

It's such a hit or miss proposition, 50% would be a very good average, imo. This shot is a great one.

What a great smile! I like the way you have done the lighting as well.

This is really well done, love the colors and composition. Yellowstone is definitely somewhere to spend a lot of time in, you made good use of your time there. Lovely!

I viewed this larger and it was vastly more appealing. The waterfalls are very attractive and although the trees in the foreground are a bit bright, overall the exposure is quite good.

The part of this I like best is the apparent transparency of the objects surrounding the door. They are both there and not-there. Beautifully inspired and rendered picture...

Hi Tony,

I rarely find anything less than 100% perfect in your photos. Here, the composition and colors are just right. The only quibble is that where the root meets the water it is very dark there and I find myself wanting to see more detail. The reflection is fine, I'm expecting to see a darker aspect there.

This is a very minor thing and overall the picture works...maybe I'm being too picky but that's my take on it.

Hi Sara,

I'm no expert, but I'm going to give my opinion based on what I've learned from other people.

It's nice the way the clearing and the water are positioned as you look through the mini valley here.

The dark shadow has taken all the detail from the center left and center right of your shot. Both the foreground and the middle distance lack definition.

I would suggest that for landscape shots you use a smaller aperture; lots of people go as small as f22. Use sharpening in your processing to bring out detail. Finally, it's often better if you use an object in the foreground, rock, tree, person, whatever, to sort of anchor the photo and use the scenery behind it to fill out your shot.

Landscapes are difficult to master; keep shooting!

Another beautiful shot with great textures, patterns and colors.