Critiques

ElSato (824) 2006-12-25 21:39

Sarolta,

Really nice. The b&w is extremely effective, but most of all the use of light which the b&w enhances I think)... the way the light catches the snow in the air, the diagonal line between light and shadow from lower left to upper right, the long shadow of the boy in the middle. Very beautiful.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-24 20:33

Katia,

A really wonderful contrast of the creche with the city around it... cars, skyscrapers, and then this tender scene in the middle of it. I'm not religious, but it is touching anyway for the combination of heartfelt emotion in the context of such functional modernity.

I'm glad that you got your wish, my friend. Last year I had the same wish come true, seeing Christmas in Mexico, which was divine.

Bеселое рождество (I hope that translated right... "merry christmas") to you in Moskva. Best wishes to everyone there.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-24 0:27

Katia,

A wonderful image. Personally I have to respectuflly take a different view than Marek and Emiel on the issue of the bubble... I think the reflection is best done small, as it is here. The image of the jellyfish should dominate, in my opinion, but the very small image of you and your girl is excellent just as it's presented here.

I love the truly montstrous image you've managed to capture, especially since it contrasts so nicely with your subject, who is really no monster at all. And the bubbles surrounding him (or her?) give the jellyfish a vulnerability that is very poignant... this creature trying to survive as the sea pulls away from it.

Really well done.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 21:16

Phil,

A really great image. I don't find the sharpness an issue at all. A very beautiful portrait of the situation in which we all find ourselves at one time or another, just alone... it's a universal thing. Best wishes for the holidays.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 21:12

Thanh,

I am happy to see your work again, as hearbreaking as it is. This image is great, really given depth by the smoke and it very touchingly shows all of us who are not there a side of life we don't normally see. As usual you have captured something important in life and caught a beautiful (and terrifying) portait of life in the processs. Great work. My best wishes for the holiday to you and to all of these people who, I suspect, get no holiday at all.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 19:58

Luko,

A really wonderful shot. As several people have noted the texture of the wall is great, but to me the real star of this shot is the window that fairly bursts out toward us, shutters flapping.

I'm going to respectfully vote against Will on the blurred figure. I think it works really well. And the saturation is a gas... I'm a sucker for heavy saturation, I know, but I think I can objectively say you have used it extremely well here.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 19:52

Kaj,

Really excellent. I love this photo for being just on the cusp between realism and turning the human form into something abstract. Very intimate, tender, and huamn, but with a wonderful intrusion by the mechanical nature of the watch.

I must say that Isabel's workshop is great, pushing it just slightly more in the direction of the abstract by removing the background and pulling in a little tighter. That knee could almost be dune.

Really nicely done.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 19:22

Isabel,

Magic, as you so often manage. Your timing here is perfect and I love the super-saturated quality of tihs image. The blown out sky really works here, too, and somehow the arrow at the core of the photo really makes it... gives the whole thing a vitality when it might otherwise have been static.

As often happens when I look at photos on this site, I wonder what the star of your photograph would say if she could see this image. To be crowned in this way and not even know it!

Excellent.

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-22 19:16

Sarolta,

Long time since I've looked at your stuff.

This is a wonderful image. I love the contrast between the evocation of Christmas on the one hand and the very seedy commercialism on the other... kind of like the retail version of Christmas we see everywhere but in a reductio ad absurdum version. I can't believe you accidentally captured such a perfect gesture from the young man -- wonderful serendipity. Happy holidays to you!

Lee

ElSato (824) 2006-12-21 22:30

Gal,

Amazing. You have captured this moment so beautifully. The combination of such an expressive young woman with the very geometritical Pythagorean shapes and forms of black and white is perfect. Salut!

Lee