Before the fall...
by RyanW

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A great shot for the family album.

A moment stopping action shot which together with your title suggests the brief calm before the subsequent splash and possible tears. I like that it is a candid moment where your son is completely oblivious to the camera.

I like the composition with your son positioned on the front third with plenty of background water and trees to convey where he is. I have to agree with posthumous I would definitely get rid of the frame edges, for me, its ruining the end result. The other big problem is the blown highlight on his arm it definitely needs pegging back some.

All in all a very pleasing shot that with the suggested alterations would be even stronger, thanks, Sid

Before the fall...
by RyanW

Comment by posthumous:
great capture, but the vignette and coloring create a kind of sickly pall

Before the fall...
by RyanW

Comment by Lydia:
Adorable!

Stormfront
by RyanW

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
I find the entirety of the mug distracting - just too much stuff. Love the inside, but even a crop would have given you the glare.

Stormfront
by RyanW

Comment by mindbottling:
I love stormy coffee. I wish it had been more in focus rather than the back of the cup, and with less glare.

Cottage-bound Lily
by RyanW

Comment by RyanW:
Thank you LoVi, this is is outside in the garden of the cottage we rented, the blue is actually the vinyl siding, and I figured having the BG as it is, along with the spiderweb partly visible near the upper left of the flower would help people to see that this is in a natural environment, while still being a pretty picture, and not a bunch of overly sunned, drying flowers with one or two nice ones in the mix, in order to show the whole scene.

I knew it was a risk for voters, Lydia even commented to that effect when I accidentally linked this into our DPL team chat thinking flowers was one of the challenges (hence why she didn't vote). Given the exceptional entries that were in the top of the challenge, I'm not overly upset with this flower's standing, it doesn't convey the natural surroundings the way many others were able to. :)

Cottage-bound Lily
by RyanW

Comment by LoVi:
Coming to the rescue of this lovely Lily. She is most likely still on her stalk as the blue and green background and buds indicate, Lydia. These flowers wilt quickly after being picked. She "is" in her natural environment...I bet my lilies on her....

Stormfront
by RyanW

Comment by smurfguy:
The liquid effect is really cool, though the mug, shadows, and direct lighting aren't too appealing. 5 from me.

Eternal / Peace
by RyanW

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

A poorly executed shot that does not meet the challenge

This is a difficult shot to get right and way beyond the dynamic range of any camera so, as such, you have to decide which is the most important element in the image and base your exposure around that. I assume your intention was to show the flames in a blurred way? The main element of the shot, the flame is way overexposed with no detail at all, so on that level it has completely failed. The same problem exists throughout all the highlights. Your choice of small aperture has produced a lot of background detail some of it very distracting as in the crane/mast to the left.

A better approach would have been to use a ND filter with a larger aperture and based your exposure on the flames. This would have made everything else darker but diverted our attention to the main subject, the flames. I do like the foreground detail and the lighting from the flame but this being static it is not the main point for the challenge, unfortunately your exposure appears to be geared for it at the expense of the important details essential to the challenge.

Its a shame you didn't get any comments I hope this critique helps. Good luck with your future entries, Sid

Angry with Myself
by RyanW

Comment by cowboy221977:
Hello from the critique club...

Not really what I expected from this challenge but still a good and fun shot. I love the subject matter. The images are crisp and clean......and the colors are nice. Good job. Happy shooting