The right wave...by
SimpaComment by ericwoo: Hey there from the Critique Club
First off, always try to include your shot info. The D70 stores it all in the EXIF data, and it really helps us out when you are requesting a critique on the image.
Camera Work/Technical: Without knowing your settings, I can tell that you had the shutter set fast enough to create a nice stop-motion image. The fast-flowing river and the frantic arm motions of the kayaker are stopped in great position with nice detail. Your WB looks dead on as well.
Lighting: I am assuming that this was an overcast day, as you have wonderfully captured a great tonal range. You colors pop, and you have lost no detail in your darks or your lights.
Composition/Content: Too centered. I think cropping about a third off of the left and just a little off of the top would have provided a much stronger composition. Your contrasting colors work well together, and the subject is very interesting
My Opinion: Also, there are two things to consider when submitting images to a challenge here. First, make sure you meet the challenge. You will get eaten alive if your image depends too much on the title, or if its a stretch from what the challenge details ask for. I know this from experience. Second, voters here look at each image a for a very small amount of time. There are usually about 600 or so images to vote on each week, so it really takes a powerful image to grab the average voter and keep them longer. Vivid colors and strong contrast, which you have here, tend to do better in most challenges. I think that this one relies too heavily on the voters understand of the rhythmic nature of rivers and the sport of paddling. Overall nice capture, but more suited for a different challenge.
Photographer found comment helpful.