Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by FrankRobinson:
Hi Tabitha! Welcome to the Critique Zone...

Wow - the voters just didn't go for this did they?! I'm not surprised, but not for the reasons you may think. My first impression was 'what a great photo'. It avoids many of the established rules of capture and composition, and it definitely ignores the 'DPC Friendly' badge, but for me, the way you have done that strengthens it, rather than weakens it.

Technically: Its not that sharp (even in the background). That surprises me since at 1/25 with VR it probably should be, but that adds to the feel of the shot - of which more below. The Depth of Field is excellent, unsurprising at f22! The flat lighting is not appealing in the traditional sense, but again adds to the feel.

Artistically: The DPC voter spends about 5 seconds per photo while voting. You don't have a sunset, cute animal, strong colours or a baby, so most will say 'it looks flat' and move on. You do have flat colours, and a blown out sky, but that gives a real feel of a cold, wintery beach, on which people are still having fun. The group running out of, rather than into the shot also contradicts received wisdom, but (without reading your description) it made me see them running off to have more fun, or hot chocolate, somewhere else. This shot tells a story, and it's a good one.

In summary, if you keep taking shots like this, then you will likely never have a really high score here, but you will gain plenty of fans amongst the more artistic and thoughtful crowd, and I would suggest that that might be more important. Happy hunting!

Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by tnun:
The picture is charming, and the write-up doesn't disappoint.

Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by FocusPoint:
Very nice shot. Good composition :) 8

Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by PennyStreet:
charming.

Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by ubique:
One of the best motion blur images I've seen for a while (and I do love motion blur).

Leo Carrillo
by Tabby

Comment by tanguera:
Fun, fun, fun!! What the day lacked in pretty weather, you made up for with terrific energy.

Often, the unaffected face disguises susceptible soul.
by Tabby

Comment by Covert_Oddity:
I don't think most people got the smile, despite the title. I think it works perfectly and adds a real edge to the meaning of the photo as well.

A photo like this will never score well here, but that's not because it's a bad photo, rather it's because it's not "pretty", in fact it's quite the opposite, it's grim and disturbing.

I think you have pulled off an excellent shot, don't be put off by the low score!

Often, the unaffected face disguises susceptible soul.
by Tabby

Comment by Gatorguy:
Hi, Critique Club here.

I like a lot of things about this image. I like the placement of the hand and pills; I like the slightly out of focus face and I really like the blank stare in her eyes. I think the slightly edgy color adds to the mood. I like the diagonal of her hand that takes the viewer from the brightly color pills to her face.

I think I might have cropped a little tighter on the right and get rid of the pill, I'm a bit distracted by that, a nit though. I think the hand is just a little too large here, maybe if you'd backed up and used a longer lens it would have compressed the image a bit. Not to say it's wrong as is because there is artistic merit to it the way it is as well. I agree with the commenter regarding the expression and think I would have rather seen the mouth expressionless like the eyes.

I didn't vote in this challenge, but would have given this an eight.

I think this was voted down for reasons other than the quality of the image. I think many didn't connect it to the challenge, and many do not like this subject matter - I've seen it happen before.

I hope this is somewhat helpful.

Often, the unaffected face disguises susceptible soul.
by Tabby

Comment by AbeSapien2:
It does indeed. Just because we think we know someone does not make it so and
you are so correct - Human Beings are delicate in all sorts of ways not always apparent by our Masques.

Often, the unaffected face disguises susceptible soul.
by Tabby

Comment by odriew:
Great concept, people often put on masks. Cant stop staring at that smile, delicate and haunting at the same time. 9