Ink & Pen
by JC_Homola

Comment:
Like it for its crispnes and clear composition. What disturbs me a little is that the objects seem the fly on the background, as if the were cut out. I to like the clean white of the background.

Dirt and a Broom
by ccraft

Comment:
I do like the colour and the texture of the ground broom & grain. Could be sharper though. Good luck

Dog
by GinaRothfels

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Well-selected subject shown with great sharpness and good use of DOF. The composition is not too well balanced though.

Content/Composition
As other already commented, the dog fits very well for this challenge: it looks energetic and how it looks to the right side of the is great.
However, the balance between it and the nice tree is not too good:
The dog is too close to the bottom border, it almost stands on it. The tree takes to much space, which is not necessary: you needed to cut it at the top anyway, so cropping it a little lower would not have hurt.
Having the dog standing on a horizon with just blue sky as background might have worked as negative space, but here the tree makes just a second, equally (or even more important) object in the picture.
The balance between the tree and the wonderful red earth is just great though. A tight rectangular crop might have improved this balance even more by placing the line between both regions on the diagonal.
What I like is how the dog is standing out of the shadow of the tree!

Camera work -technically
Very, very good: focus and DOF are set awesomely and the exposure is great too.

Digital Processing - Technical
No flaws here either. Sharpening, hue/saturation etc. all top notch. Having no border was a good choice too.

Fits the challenge
Yes, beside the balance between tree and dog it does.

Good luck for your upcoming submissions

Spirit of Hamlein
by Koriyama

Comment:
Like it very much, also the texture of the background.
It should read Hamelin though (I acctually lived 20 kilometers apart from Hameln, as the town is called in German).
Good luck!

Antique
by deege

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Great antique road signs! Too bad technically it's not too well executed.

Content/Composition
The content of the image is very well chosen and showing not only the old sign but also some of the surrounding landscape was a wise choice IMO. You might have composed the image a little different by either placing the sign more to the left or right or maybe even center it. The way it is now, it's a little indifferent. I would have placed it according to the nicer background.

Camera work -technically
The focus seems more or less fine, although I do not want to call the image sharp. Exposure could be a bit darker. Everything looks pale.

Digital Processing - Technical
I think that via post processing the image could have been made much better.
B&W or sepia might have been a wise choice, especially for strengthening the antique feeling. A bit more contrast as well as adjusting the brightness might have been good too. Another step of improvement would have been sharpening the image a bit more and maybe (that's a matter of taste) add some noise/grain to it to make it look even more old. You should also have rotated the image CCW to make the sign post vertical.

Fits the challenge
Yes, it does so very well.

Good luck for your upcoming submissions

And the plot thickens...
by kosmikkreeper

Comment:
My favorit in this challenge! How the cat looks at the fish is awesome. Would have liked it to see a bit more of the glass though.
Hope you do very well!

Pollen on the Move
by Gracious

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Colourful image speaking of flowing shape, lines and a strong blue. Initially I didn't get the title.

Content/Composition
A very tranquilling, aesthetic picture that is very well composed: having the grass on the lower right with showing some of their reflections is well considered. Beside this main-focal-point the wonderfully flowing lines of the water with its smooth surface work very well. And the contrast between the blue and green is very good too.
So regarding the composition everything is just right.

Camera work -technically
Focus, exposure and white balance are all set right as far as I can see.

Digital Processing - Technical
It seems that we look at a small crop out of the original that is oversharpened: the water is somewhat grainy. The colour saturation is also a bit too strong for my taste.

Fits the challenge
I do see an issue here: even with the title I can not see it too well in NG. While the topic "pollen" is of course well suited for NG, I and probably other don't see this topic in the image. This is of course do to my lack of detailed knowledge about pollen.

Good luck for your upcoming submissions

Thistle and bee
by train

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Fine image, fitting the challenge very well. It has some technical issues though.

Content/Composition
Insects and flowers work always well, especially for this challenge. In contrast to many other "simple" flowers the thistle is something special: due to it's thorns it's a "stronger", less lovely flower. However, you composed it showing how beautiful it is.
Unfortunately the bee is turning its back on the viewer, but there was probably not much to do against this "camera"-unfriendly behaviour.
I thing you cropped the image a bit too tight at the top while the lower border is too low: the bee and colourful part of the thistle are somewhat squeezed in the upper left edge.

Camera work -technically
Focus seems fine, at least when judging it by looking at the thistle. DOF is set well too. Same for light and white balance. That the bee is fuzzier is probably due to its fast movement.

Digital Processing - Technical
Maybe I'm wrong, but the image looks like being a small section out of the original picture. It looks over sharpened, at least at the thistle and the grainy structure of the background might be caused by the sharpening too. Increasing the colour saturation a bit might have been nice too.

Fits the challenge
Yes it does very well fit to NG.

Good luck for your upcoming submissions

Close-up Feather
by vtruan

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Great play of colour and texture/lines. Too artistic and not scientific enough to fit for NG IMO.

Content/Composition
What a colourful image! I like the bended lines and also how you arranged them along the diagonal. Having the upper right more blurred is nice too. The compositional problem I do have with the image is the fact that it is not clear at all what I am looking at. Even with the title I don't know what part of a feather and what bird's feathers I see. Thus having more in focus would have worked better IMO.

Camera work -technically
Focus is way too narrow, even the sharpest parts are not very clear. Light and exposure are fine.

Digital Processing - Technical
No issue here. Seems that not much digital work has been applied and it is also not necessary too.

Fits the challenge
Here I see the problem I and the voters had: it's more an artistic image and not one of the very clear and crisp NG-images one has in mind. Showing microscopic features do fit for NG but it should be more like "Aha, that's how things look in detail!" and not "What is it?".

Good luck for your upcoming submissions

Sparkling personality
by timmi

Comment:
Wonderfully creative and right on the schallange. Do like how the boy is lit by the light. One of my favorits. Good luck