Sound You Can Feel
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by tate:
You have certainly captured the amazingness that is a high performance flying machine.

Sound You Can Feel
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by giantmike:
The inclusion of a horizon is wonderful.

Sound You Can Feel
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Lydia:
Nicely done!

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hehe, you got em good, Doc...both a very patriotic celebration, and great choice of emotive sing title to go along perfectly with the image. Love the lightwash on the water, the people have their hoodies up so we can't see their faces but that adds some mystique to them. The fireworks are off-centre, while usually they are centres, but here they are balanced by the darkness split by the moon and stars on the right. Kind of makes us puny humans looks like we're trying to challenge the astral bodies with our own versions thereof.

Overall an interesting image and a well-deserved top ten!

Susan

Waiting For More Than 800 Pixels
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hmm....this is one of those pics that make you go...waitaminute...things look a little too perfect, a little too in place...then I saw your photog's notes and saw that you did indeed shoot a window display, someone else's work. The lighting has that peculiar flatness to it that you tend to see in store window displays, which was also a tip-off. I think the crop is a little tight and voters don't usually like portrait crops. The title is a little ambiguous too, which doesn't help.

Ok. Got that out of my system! This was a free study, so of course anything goes. The skeleton dominates the pic but the lanterns clustered around the head draw the eye away a bit, almost to the point of not noticing the pumpkin at the end of the arm. I like the fog effect. That, and a whole lotta dodge and burn, could have been put to use to maximize and minimize the impact of all the various elements here. And it all would have been legal under Advanced!

Hope this has been helpful

Susan

How I Spent My Summer Vacation
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Compositionally this is an OK shot, with a nice colourful focal point shown in exquisite detail, even at an hour before or after high noon by the shadow.

This shot seems to me to be of two minds: is it a landscape shot, or a product shot? The bike is definitely a nice looking ride, as echoed by commenters, and the poppiness of the colour draws the eye to it immediately. But the rest of the scenery calls for attention too, though not as immediately as the bike does. Also the horizon is very close to a 50/50 split which further divides the attention. If you cover the bike and foreground, you have an entirely different shot; ditto if you block off the mountains.

I have to side with Jake (bdh) here. I can see you love both where you are, and your bike, but would like to see the bike positioned a little differently. Turning the bike around would also cast the shadow behind it and give it more of a sense of where it's been, than where it's going. Also, if you'd shot the bike from lower down so the mountains were looming behind it instead of beside it, I think you would have gotten a much stronger shot.

Hope this helps!

Susan

Big Red
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I can see, as I trust the voters can, that you shot this at a 3/4 angle to the bus. Thus the angles are kind of all over the place; I find that DPC voters tend to not like off-kilter horizons, and here I am looking for a horizon to stabilize myself, as it were, but can see none. I thought it might have been shot with a wide angle lens initially due to the almost cartoony distortion of the front of the bus in particular. I know I find the apparent downward tilt of the front of the bus - I know, it's perspective - but it seems to give the photo a top-heavy quality to the right of the pic.

As for the PS tricks, I actually don't mind them here. I don't think it's overprocessed, but seeing that you shot at ISO 1600 and image noise always seems to Nikon's main bugaboo, I can see some noise; otherwise I have no problems with slow shutter speeds to create ghost trails behind moving subjects.

Hope this has been helpful and feel free to PM me with any questions.

Susan

Big Red
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Pangurban:
I like the composition but less keen on the processing/effects.

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by digifotojo:
Nice job!

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Dennisheckman:
Well done Doc!

Your trip sounds like a good time.