atlatling

I too like this image very much. Just brousing about after seeing your photo in the "No Word" forum. That image of the trees and bushes fading off in the coming darkness appealed to me too. Most enjoyable.

I must agree with so many of the others that this young girl is making absolutely wonderful use of lighting, especially backlighting, and she does well with her model's poses. This particular model's pose to me is magic. I love the "S" shape of the body and the mimicry of the left arm to the right leg. Well composed, and I would not crop any part away. Granted, I would have cropped off bits here or there were the image mine, but that's just what I do. Often to undesireable ends.
I don't believe that is a shoulder in the mirror, but rather a towel on a towel bar. I am curious as to what that other item in the mirror is. It looks like an out of place, half full, shot glass.
I cannot believe that the water pipes come right out of the middle of the bathroom floor. What a strange way to make a bathroom. But, plumbing aside, Way to go! And congratulations on being selected this week. I know you will do well in your future as a photographer.
Willie the Cropper

Thanks for visiting my portfolio. I have enjoyed looking over your work as well. I especially like your fantastic skies as in this splendid image. Nice work.

A nice diagonal composition and wonderful colors. I cannot think of any way to improve on this image -- not even cropping really. The bottom actually could be cropped away up to the point where the breaking wave intersects with the extreme right side. That would change the image slightly, and some might find it more pleasing, but it's change for change sake to do that. It is a most interesting abstract picture.

Willie the Cropper

I like the colors, composition (which could be improved, I think.) and the lights and shadows. I would first like to know what the subject is dowing and why. Even not knowing, I still think the picture is interesting and attention grabbing, two of the prime purposes of making such a photograph.

To me It might be better if cropped on the right side a full inch which would eliminate the artist's signature, but also cut away some dead weight. That would improve the compostion a little I think. It would bring the face more into the area of the "rule" of thirds so many of us strive for. The more I examine it, the more I think both left side as well as the right side should be cropped away. Make the picture a square format and support that rule of thirds, increasing the size of the figure within the picture.

As a suggestion, not to the artists here on POW, but rather the Elves, I would recommend that as most of the pictures placed on this page have a story behind them, that that story be told. We could understand the mind of the photographer better, and maybe learn a trick or two for future use of us, the observers and critiquers.

Willie the Cropper

I was so pleased to see this surreal image here this week that I felt I must comment immediately. Ceslovas, you capture what is best about surrealistic art. I spent the past half hour looking with wonder at your wonderful portfolio. As usual, the elves don't choose the best of the artist's work to bring up for discussion on POW, however this is more or less typical of what you offer. (In my view, the photo titled "Solaris" is the best.)

I don't pretend to know how you achieve these wonderful works, but I do like what I see. Also, I dont pretend to fully understand the art, but it is most enjoyable. I can see little that I could improve by cropping or other changes in this image. At first, I thought the sky tilted a little to the right, but I have satisfyied myself that this is not so. Generally, your skies are about the main attraction in your works, and me being a cloud buff, became more interested in them than the rest of your pictures.

If I was to change anything about this picture, it would be the pinkish cast given the snow covered forground. it seems to stop before reaching the hills in the background. I might try a similar color or possibly a shade darker for those background hills.

Congratulations on being the chosen one for this week!

Willie the Cropper

Jayanti, I had not even noticed the right tilt on the extreme right hand post before you pointed it out. Maybe since there are both left and right tilts, that normal lens distortion is coming into play here. Still the overwhelming weight in the picture is the church tower and that causes the problem for me. I still like the idea of a cropped version pointed out above by Jeff.

Unless I am just listing this morning after only one cup of coffee, I see the uprights as being tilted to the left as they rise. Note the slant of the church tower and the distant pole to the right of the kids. Both slant to the left. I do this same thing often and am berated for it so it has become more noticable to me.

Love the misty overall view due to the snow falling and blowing. It brings back memmories -- some good and some bad. I tend in my old age to stay inside during days like this, but still wish I had the stamina to get out there.

That scaffholding or crane or what ever it is could be cloned out or subdued more to make it less bothersome. I agree with the viewer above that suggested that there are two distinct crops which work well. One cropping the tree away and one cropping the stone tower away. Both make nice vertical pictures and both, to me improve on this already interesting photo.

You make so many nice, really brilliant photographs that I am sure the elves had some difficulty in choosing just one for us to pick apart. Congratulations for the "honor."

Willie the Cropper

Nice composition and lighting, overall. I see the rule of thirds applied here to good advantage. It is an attention

grabber of a photo, however I find myself falling off the floor as we approach either the left or right lower corners.

Especially the lower left. I tried cropping away that portion, but It didn't stop the distortion so evident in this image. I

know distortion comes with wide angle lenses, but I think PhotoShop could reduce the problem.

 

Congratulations for being selected and I thoroughly enjoyed viewing your landscapes. Some really nice work there.

 

Willie the Cropper

Good Morning Maria, Back lighting such as this makes a most dramatic photograph. Nice work. I love the clouds. Keep it up.

 

Bill

Somehow, the math is wrong for me. I see this as a totally mathmatical image. A diagonal from corner to corner shows that the exact top of the hat is exactly the mid point in the picture and that is strange. One would expect to see a composition that flows into the picture and this does not -- unless it does it from the bottom upward to that mid point.

 

I had thought upon first looking at it that it was made in a square format camera, but it is not square at all. Yet dividing the image in half side to side and top to bottom (just as does corner to corner both ways) leads one to the exact top of the hat. What's so interesting about that hat? Nothing in my view.

 

Had I taken this photograph, for the sake of composition, I would place the figure of the man considerably higher in the photograph. I think too much has been cropped from the bottom. My other suggestion would be to crop one third of the photograph away from the top, but that doesn't really work as well as I would like either. At any rate, that sky doesn't help to tell me a story.

 

Technically, the picture is good, but not too interesting -- at least to me. Sorry.

 

Willie the Cropper

Thanks Jeff. I worked a lot and learned a great deal doing this one. Had fun too.

Bill

I can take no credit for this as it was done hundreds of years ago. I did have to climb up the cliff a way, however. Couldn't do that now. We just heard that many of the petroglyphs on this site were damaged this year by fires.

We are missing something. How do we measure size here? There is little with which to judge. I guess that's part of the beauty and interest in this photo. I see the salt along the edge of the water on the beach. The strange colored shalow water lends an overall pattern which is interesting. Most unusual and well worth examining, as are other photos in your portfolio which use a similar technique.

 

The pilings, if that is what we are seeing, are not as straight with the edge of the picture as they could be with a bit of cropping.

 

Willie the Cropper

I think the straight line Jayanti speaks of is the curb at the man's feet. Michael, Didn't she and Bogie separate at an airport? That's the way I remember it. Yes, to several above, this photograph lends an air of mistery. Aside from that It leaves me rather cold. I don't like the wide separation of the two principals. I would like to see them tied closer someway, but in this picture it is impossible to accomplish that with any cropping or other adjustment. Maybe I just don't find this one my cup of tea. Sorry, but congratulations for being selected, anyway.

 

Willie the Cropper

I see from looking at your portfolio that you suffer from insomnia. You do marvelous night photography. I cannot imagine any way to improve this beautiful image. The clarity and sharpness is stunning and although you may get a comment on over sharpening, don't listen to them. This sharpness makes the work look like a fine engraving. Even the sky is just right. Nice work. This one is among your best in my view.

 

Willie the Cropper.

This photograph expresses so much humor that it needs nothing added, removed or changed to achieve that end. No change in contrast, no cropping and from me, nothing but my very best wishes and continued great photography.

 

True to my image, I did examine cropping and can find at least three other great images. 1. crop away that part of the photo from the man's knees down. 2. Crop away the goat. 3. Crop away the woman. All three make interesting photos, but having them all there is still by far the best. Congratulations on being selected for POW. Nice work. I like the contrast as is.

 

Willie the Cropper

After reviewing the reviews:...I think that the right side of the picture does look somewhat distorted, but I think that is the way it really is. (Note the stair treds) I'm not bothered by the space given that wall as it makes breathing room for the viewer if not cropped away. I hadn't noticed the whitish blob at the extreme right center, but it could and should be cloned away. No cropping is needed in my humble view.

 

Willie the Cropper

Here I am at the front of the line again. Marco, your photography of dance,expecially groups of dancers is just magnificent. I really think you have this niche down well. They are quite a contrast to your lonsome desert images from your travels. I like them as well.

 

You have great composition in this weeks POW. I cannot think of any way to improve on that. I only wish the male's coat fitted him better so that his arms wouldn't stick out so much. That is not a negative against your photography. You do very well. This unusual composition makes for a most interesting photograph. Nice going!

 

Willie the Cropper

I hate to be the first one to comment. Seems to be my chore, some weeks. In looking at your very small portfolio, only six photos, I see you have a very definite style. In my humble view, you've found a niche, and are sticking to it. Great work overall. I like the square format too. Even though I consider myself a cropper, I see no way to improve on this one by cropping. It seems to me that the horizon line dips about a degree to the right. I perfer the subject matter of a couple of others in your portfolio much more than the umbrellas, but that is just me. You do nice work overall and I congratulate you on being chosen for this weeks honors.

 

Willie the Cropper

Joost, although I like this work as well as most of those in your portfolio, I find a bit of difficulty with the background in this one. It looks as if it were made by burning in the upper left corner with Photoshop. If that is true, the problem is that I should not be able to determine that Photoshop was used.

 

Secondly, I think the hair looks as if someone is holding it off to the left side of the picture. It doesn't look natural as if a breeze was making it move, but as if it were faked.

 

I know you like to crop close in on your model's head, and you did here at least at the top, but I think we should see the top. You cropped too close. I suspect that the background is the reason for cropping the top off the photo. What would that background look like had it not been cropped?

 

She is a beautiful girl and well posed in my view, but the image does suffer some slight problems. Congratulations on being chosen for this week's POW.

 

Willie the Cropper

I really enjoyed looking through your many and varied portfolio photographs, but this one struck me as really special. I assume this is an albino, although down there anything is possible----maybe another species. Thanks.

Jane, as stated above by the many, this is a superbly photographed version of a frequently photographed icon of SW USA. In looking at your many wonderful landscapes in your portfolio, I came away inspired. That wide angle lens does wonders generally, but in this picture I find it at fault. In fact, the only problem aside from the not too level horizon is the distortion of the very near foreground. Not only is there distortion, but the image darkens as it nears the bottom of the picture. This makes one feel that the immediate foreground drops off and that the photographer is standing in a hole. You could fix that with the bottom quarter of the pic cropped away, or as a minimum, lightened a bit to reduce the effect.

 

Had you taken two or three photographs, one at your feet, another midway up the scene, and a third of the horizon and sky you could use one of the several very good stitching programs and not have this problem at all. I like the vertical panorama effect you have here, but am bothered by the distortion.

 

Willie the Cropper

I was amazed to see so many interesting photographs in your portfolio. Most of them really interesting, as is this one. I did note that a number of them are of your little girl flaunting dress up atire. Nice having your own model right there at home.

 

With this POW image, I see flaws which bother me a little. First, the skin on the legs of the central figure and the girls legs appears strangely mottled giving me the impression of veins showing through. Maybe it's just my monitor, but I've never seen this before on any B & W image. Secondly, you've cut off the great toe of the third child. If it was in the original, I think it should be included here, or...

 

As a quick fix, I would crop the picture away below the girls elbow. Then no more missing toe and no mottled skin.

 

Willie the Cropper

In looking over your portfolio, I see many very nice photographs, but few landscapes or seascapes --- Only a couple. Seems strange that the elves wouldn't choose one of your other photographs for this week, but I guess it is the brilliant colors of this image that attracted them.

 

The colors seem to be one of the faults with this image. Don't get me wrong, I do like the photo, but the color is just too intense in my view. I look at the color of the water's reflections and compare it to what caused that reflection and they are entirely different hues and much more sedate as well. Possibly you over emphasized the intensity of those reflected colors.

 

I also feel, as does Louis above, that there is a need to straighten out the verticals as the buildings tend to slope inward toward the center of the picture.

 

Thirdly, I would crop off the bottom where the major reflections seem to end. This will place the horizon line below the center of the picture and thus improve the composition in my view.

 

This would have been a great opportunity for a panoramic photo. The city lights seem to end too abruptly. I want to see more!

 

My very best to you, and congratulations for having been chosen for this weeks honor.

 

Willie the Cropper