McAlpine
by jboling

Comment by bod:
First thing that springs to mind is that the horizon isn't straight. Nice use of reflections. The left hand side of the image looks far more interesting than the right, and the house trying to hide in the trees is a little distracting. Maybe panning to the right or zooming in on that side would have improved this?

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by Jacko:
Simon & Garfunkel. Neat Start burst. Jacko

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by inspzil:
I need my shades on to vote on this one.

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by Lustre:
The sun, clouds and sky are amazing. Unfortunately the road is a little distracting based on the title. If it had been a field instead of a road in the foreground it would have appealed more, but still a very nice photo nonetheless

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by cykhansen:
Great shot of the sun but unfortunately spoiled by the 'moving light' (?) on the road.

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by KimInNB:
The only thing I don't like about this pic is the guard-rail on the right hand side. Everything else - golden

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by kiwiness:
Cat Stevens comes from my country! New Zealand...The song is cool your photo too!

Morning Has Broken
by jboling

Comment by mariomel:
I love shots like this, but unfortunately I feel the sun's glare has overpowered this picture. The road and trees, etc are too unclear, IMO.

Blue and White
by jboling

Comment by karmat:
CRITIQUE CLUB CRITIQUE
by Karmat

Composition -- I personally like the subject you chose for this challenge. Of course, I may be biased because I almost submitted something similar! I think the tree and clouds form a nice triangle, whether intentional or not. I also like the simplicity of it and the contrast of the white and blue.

Technique -- The focus does seem a little off on the tree, probably because trees and leaves are a bear to photograph with digi cams! I am not familiar with your camera, so i don't know if the lack of focus came from it or post processing. You have used available light well, and nothing seems blown out. I do see some noise in the sky, which is distracting. Something I have just found that helps this situation (and is dpc legal) is NeatImage. You can get a free download, and it eliminates noisy that I had in my pics that I didn't know I had. Also, did you try boosting the contrast slightly, just to make the tree have a little more pop? Not sure how much it would help, but it might help some.

Overall Effect -- I'm like you in that I like pictures of skies and clouds. Unfortunately for us, that is not the most popular choice of subjects on dpc, but don't stop! This picture has a very peaceful, serene feeling to it.

Karma

Heavy Lifting
by jboling

Comment by stephan:
Hi John, don't wonder why you get another critique this late but your photo was assigned to me in context of the Critique Club (maybe your read about that in the forum). So here it goes:

Composition: I like the framing by the tree and the roof on the left and on the bottom. Only this indicates that the helicopter is in a city. It would be better if the roof would have some chimneys or antennas because like it's now it's hard to recognise as a roof and is only a black bar. I think that's why some people suggested to crop it out.
The subject is placed according to the rule of thirds (intentionally or not) and I think it helped the photo because it makes the subject more dynamic and like it just flew into the frame.

Lighting: The backlighting of the sun creates a very magnificent light. But I think it's a bit too much and I would like a shorter exposure. The helicopter which is your actual subject (and not the sun) loses detail, e.g. the rope holding the cargo vanishes in the sky. Of course it would have been perfect if the sun was right behind the helicopter, but I guess it was not possible to tell the pilot to pose for you ;-)

Focus: The focus could be better. It seems that the tree has a better focus than the helicopter. It should be the other way around.

Art: In my opinion the photo fulfills the challenge. It documents an event altough not a very interesting or touching one and I don't think this would make it on the front cover. Backlighting always is a difficult thing in photography and altough it could be improved technically it's an extra point for the effort.