Peace...At Last
by sher

Comment:
The flag is a little too sharp and hurts my eyes. There is no color in the grass though! Otherwise great composition!

Beer
by LarsPaysen

Comment:
Very nice contrasts in colors on this one. I love the way the cold beer (you know it's cold from the condensation) feels warm and fuzzy compared to the cool blues of the sea and sky.

The angle is very unique and helps to capture the reflection of the sun making it once again seem a warm and fuzzy feel. DOF may be just a touch off. The base of the glass seems a little soft on focus. Otherwise very nice DOF composition.

Oh one subtle flaw... The glass isn't centered on the coaster but very minor point

Hope it helps,
TC

thinking outside of the tank
by artizen

Comment:
Just added this shot to my favorites. Love the originality. And a first time submission! Nicely done!

The Morning After
by GolferDDS

Comment:
'Cool for you....Ya got a ribbon!!!

Hopefully the first of many!
TC

Thank You , Doctor.
by faidoi

Comment:
Faidoi, to make this pic POP for me it needed a little bit sharper focus. I did have a hard time with fitting it into the oops challenge. Like someone else said it was more like after the oops but definately better than broken eggs :-)

I gave you a six!

Smooth Sailing
by mariomel

Comment:
Very pretty shot. Love the whole blue feeling here. Nice and calm and serene. Great mood.

Only things I would change: The focus seems (very) slightly off on the boat. I would like to see it a touch sharper. I know it's hard to do with a low light subject like this.

Also, I would like to see either a. more detail in the boat (don't know if it's possible in this lighting) or b. less detail in the boat (true silhouette).

Oh and (just a personal thing) I hate the border that isn't really a border. Don't understand it.

Scoring (as usual for the POD there is no topic to skew the score so...) I would give this an eight (leaning toward nine)

Hope it's helpful.
TC

thinking outside of the tank
by artizen

Comment:
A little fill flash, a little more dof and this woulda been the best shot here. Love the comic book feel of it but it just doesn't quite hit it. One of my favorites of this challenge though! Very BRAVE AND ORIGINAL!!!

Covent Garden Buskers
by floyd

Comment:
This is a very cool shot. DOF is very good for this set up. In fact it reminds me how I need to get a camera where I have more control over that aspect. The bacground is just enough out of focus to keep your eye on the subjects.

I also love that there is enough detail to keep your eye without being 'noisy' in a compositional sense. The lines are very good at helping to direct the eye also. I find that I move around this picture but keep coming back to the same place. The fiddle players instrument points at the instrument of the seated individual. The seated player's left leg points at the fiddle players bow. This brings you back to the fiddle players face which is pointing at the seated players face. Then my eye goes down the seated players arm around to his hand and back to the fiddle which brings me again to the fiddle players face! I LOVE the implied interaction between the two subjects because of the eye contact that you can't really see but know is there!!!

Compositionaly I first thought of croping farther to the left to bring in the case where presumably people are throwing in money. Then I realized that with the background and setting you really didn't need to see that element.

Normally I will harp about taking away color. I LOVE color. However with this shot you get much more feeling (warm fuzzy...) with the use of the sepia toning (which in this instance does not 'age' the picture so much as it sometimes can!)

I personally might have sharpened up the subjects a touch, but I am not sure this would have improved the shot or not.

If voting (without a theme to change the vote) I would give this at LEAST an 8 probably a 9!

Keep up the good work, hope I didn't ramble on too long...
TC

The Snow Is Too Cold!
by FranziskaLang

Comment:
This is a very eye-catching piece. Good focus and depth of field. Nicely cooridinated colors (cool greys and white. An awesome shot.

However; IMHO there is not a lot of detail to keep my eye for long. (Is this because of a long zoom???) There is not much in the feathers and of course snow is white. So where this piece does jump out and say "look at me", I personaly don't see much staying power.

TC

Candles... and a rose
by Faye Pekas

Comment:
Roses and Grapes came off much more powerfully in my opinion. The grapes kinda make the background a little noisy with the feel of the rest of the image. After seeing this one I would try the same setup (less grapes) and a tighter crop. Still a cool low light shot. (6 if I was voting and please see my comments on 'Roses and Grapes')