hique

The complete lack of realism and the excessive use of color, unreal perspective, etc, makes it look cheesy, in my opinion.

It's not what I would call surreal either. It's just "artificial".

Nice colors though.

So...SOOOOO scary! :/

I don't think that I am going to sleep tonight.

Very nice. Evoking emotions in me :)

I think it is so sinister because of the lack of whites. The "grayness" of the horizon (the lack of horizon, actually).

Congrats.

Terrific. Scary, beautiful, strong, curious... even sensual in some sort of way :)

I thought I couldn't dare to point any "defect" but to set it apart from perfection a little bit...the rainway curve to the right bothers me a little. It breaks a little the otherwise perfectly symetric image.

Congratulations.

Very nice. The box is everthing. The perspective and the dirt is also a great frame.

I would only suggest a little more space at the top (if possible). The 'box' perfectly centered. Would make it's "graphic" atributes stronger.

The pastel, dark colors are beautiful but there is too much of this kind of 'look' lately.

The box is everything

Congratulations.

Too much.

I don't quite see why it would be creative. Uncreative from my point of view.

Very normal picture with lots of shadow/highlight.

Very beautiful and well made, but not creative.

Gary...let's not take it to the personal side

What's the point of critique if someone can't express what they think, see and feel?

You think it's a nice composition and crop. Some people think it's not. And that's the beauty of the critique process and the art itself ;)

There is no need to diss the critics...

Cheers

About the picture itself, I think there is too little space at the top and right. The bottom could be cropped to add some balance.

I would like to add some discussion. I think we have many pictures with this tone lately: Dark images but with shadow detail. There are a lot of photographers that devote theirselves entirely to this kind of photography.

What I realize is that this is an evident result of the technology available. Digital cameras with much shadow detail and Shadow/Highlight function on Photoshop provide the possibility to achieve these results, which were harder to do on an enlarger (much masking, dodging and burning).

So what I question is if it is just me that thinks this way and if it's a good thing to have photos conditioned by the technology.

I think it's really nice to have the technology helping us to broad our vision and achieve new results. And the results are terrific, don't get me wrong! But there are soooo many new shooters that are doing this kind of photography (even myself).

Well, just trying to add some discussion :)

Cheers

Carlos, Congratulations for the photo. Really beautiful.

"...automatically perceived as more artful or more serious"

I believe that this is very common with less instructed photographers/viewers. Don't ask me why :)

Better experienced viewers would judge the photo by its merits, being either bw or color.

As Patrick noticed, I hope we can all give constructive contributions to Monteiro and produce enough discussion instead of just congratulating the author.

I like the picture overall. The tone, the exposure and the hazy atmosphere. I wouldn't boost the contrast. I prefer it flater since it reflects the haze better.

I think the composition could be better. There is an evident weight on the right and bottom parts of the image but, of course, there was little that the photographer could do. Anyway I had to point it out.

I believe that the composition could be improved with the towers positioned more to the left; less centered in the frame (that could result in a better balance versus the right-bottom dark areas).

Another thing that bothers me is the person being in front of the bridge's pillar. The runner would hold our attention better if it were against the water only.

So, to improve the composition, walking a few steps to the left would fix both the tower's and the runner's position, improving the composition overall.

I like the tone/exposure though. Wouldn't change that :)

So finally, congratulations. Very nice picture.

I agree with Jim. The concept is nice and all but the execution and post-production is poor. Maybe re-shooting would result in a terrific image.

There are many, many better images in her portfolio so I can't understand why this one was the chosen.

Antonella: Congratulations for your work. It is really good.

Probably your best photo. Very surreal the lack of colors from the rocks and the three. Was it manipulated or the lack of colours comes from the subject?

Anyway a good picture.

Nice subtle colors and lighting.

Very nice.

Not the most original concept but beautifuly executed.

I would only prefer it to be perfectly centered. This "almost centered" would be better this way. Maybe cropping the right part would fix that

Congrats

Very beautiful. Not much to improve.

I didn't see the birds at first. They surely add a lot to the picture.

Congratulations

Tha black area at the bottom is very distracting. Black has a property of adding the sense of weight to an image and it is weighting to much there.

Otherwise the picture is very interesting. Specially the colors.

I would crop the black area out.

Congrats.

I can see the sad, long face...

How good is this? Sort of ordinary in my opinion, but sometimes

simplicity is appealing.

So?

Cheers :)

Very nice exposure. The shadows and siluettes are interesting, specialy theirs poses.

I would prefer the footsteps to cross the frame instead of leading to the center of the frame.

Very good picture anyway.

Very dreamy.

Hi there.

This one is on a region where the swamp flora meets the sea.

Comments are greatly appreciated

Cheers.

...The result of the low tide

What do you think?

Comments are greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi there Carl. I posted an answer about your question: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3897794

About your picture....very interesting. This surreal marks (clouds??) in the sky are very beautiful and original. I keep asking myself what would they be...

You managed to capture this unique moment under a very nice light situation. Very good.

Congratulations.