Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by lisae:
Well, by some bug in the Critique Club automation page, I was given this photo to critique, even though I'm not on their list! (I shouldn't have clicked on the button out of curiosity :P). So you get to have my first ever Critique Club critique!

I think that this is a great way to express the idea of "Night and Day" in a photo, in both a literal interpretation of the title of the song, and, as you describe, in the wider sense of the emotions described in the lyrics. Cole Porter was a great artist. The song is about the savage, yearning emotions that underly love. I really like the way you chose the sunset to express this - the interface between night and day, the setting of the sun giving an idea of the cycle of time (night follows day follows night, etc.) just like the "beat beat beat of the tom toms" and the grandfather clock, etc. evoke the incessant passage of time in the song.

As a sunset photo, it's very nice. The colours are vivid, and there is a lovely, sweeping texture in the clouds. However, that little bit of horizon and the pylon are problematic to me. You say there's a city there, but I can't really see it. The horizon looks tilted, giving a feeling of disorder or chaos to the photo. That kind of undermines that idea I described of the orderly passage of time. A tilted photo works well when you want something to appear wild or crazy or strange, but this photo, to me, needs to be more subtle. The pylon is just a distraction that doesn't add anything to the composition.

If there had been more interesting scenery around, I think you could have framed some into the sunset shot without undermining it too much... a little more of the horizon, a tree, something along those lines. But what you have here is intrusive and distracting. It could easily have been cropped out, leaving a photo that may have been a bit more abstract, but would have retained all the elements that I thought supported the "night and day" theme very well.

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by gps_01:
OK... I admit. The tilt was not intentional. It's difficult to keep the camera level on the side of my window (I wish I had a tripod and a window I can open). I am VERY beginner. (this is my first submission). I took a couple of sunset photos, and I was lucky to get this one. I thought the colors were great so I submitted it. As for fixing the tilt, there would have been either almost no landscape (which I didn't want because the landscape gave a since of scale and place to the otherwise "empty" and "lost" clouds). OR the "thin red line" would have been cut from the left and I didn't want to ruin the symmetry of the most beautiful part (I think) of the photo.

Hopefully I'll learn from my mistakes and from your valuable comments :)

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by johnny_justjohnny:
wanna see the base of the tower, or no tower would've been fine too.

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by erin_m02:
Would liked to have seen more of the horizon, a little less sky. Very nice colors. =-)

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by mcrael:
Beautiful colors. However, why did you leave out so much of the horizon, and why is it so tilted?

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by jgillard:
If you would of cropped out the tower on the left side of this image, I would of scored you much higher. It is a great picture none the less. jgillard8

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by albright1:
Wow.... What a breathtaking shot!

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by inspzil:
The first thing I think of when I look at pictures in terms of voting is, "Could I see this hanging on my wall?" This has some great colors, but it needs rotating a little and there really isn't much in terms of composition, but the colors. - Inspzil

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by goodtempo:
super colors and the dark clouds on top. too bad it's not straight.

Night & Day
by gps_01

Comment by sylandrix:
You caught a beautiful sunset. Quite a transition from the bright colors down at the bottom to the somber greys at the top. I feel the photo lacks somewhat due to a sparse/uninteresting and tilted foreground. Sunset pictures combined with some other dominant element generally have more impact. Try finding a large, interesting natural or artificial feature (mountains, trees, interesting building(s), etc.) and stalk that location for a good sunset oppurtunity.