Critiques

  leiju (1679) 2009-08-23 0:55

I must agree with Jorge here!
This is a portrait of two tourists more than anything else. Had your comment described the difference between ancient and modern cultures, I would have more than understood your choice of composition and content. But now, the wall around the couple looks like nothing more than a frame for their portrait. By including the couple, You have stolen the spotlight from the ancient carvings and rendered them mundane tourist attraction-style frames.
It has become one of those more-than-too-often-seen "I was there" holiday pictures and I believe has no real place on TE... unless, of course, your note was different :)

I hope You do not take offence!
All the best,
Julia

leiju (1679) 2009-05-03 15:42

A trail of gold speckles raining onto our Hearts;
A trail of Light, Joy and Love filled from within;
A hint of giggle; a splash of freedom; a tickle of warmth;

A picture worth more than a thought;
A Moment captured within a non-existent frame;

Sometimes something moves us from within, even when we don't know why; this picture did just that to me, and I allowed myself to play around, to smile, to chuckle within, with a pinch of lustful Joy. I hope You don't mind :)

Thank You for sharing such an inspiring picture!
Julia

leiju (1679) 2009-02-25 4:26

Dear Takero,

What a lovely shot! The colours are strong, the bokeh just right, the depth of field well chosen and the precise moment that you managed to capture captivating in itself. The detail we want to see is right there to be seen, just as is the context. All in all a wonderful picture that tells a story!

If I were to nitpick, however, I would complain about the girl being so central in the picture. If you are one for cropping, I would remove some bit of the picture starting from the left and up to the first girls side hairline, just so that the main girl may be more off the centre and hence better anchored in the shot.

All in all a wonderful moment well captured :)
TFS!
Julia

leiju (1679) 2009-02-25 4:21

An interesting scene!
I wish the file was bigger though. There is a lot of noise in the foliage as well as in the waterfall... the picture in itself weighs only 59kb, which is tiny! It seems like a compressed pictures and that in itself is a pity, as there is much more space on this website, for something much bigger and richer in detail!
I also wonder whether you have cropped the original file or whether your camera shoots this shape pictures automatically... It would have perhaps been nice to see more of a vertical shot of this place, to give us a little bit of a wider idea of what the waterfall itself is like and where it ends. I must admit I like the composition here, with the wide lush green foliage on many layers and the waterfall itself arranged on a diagonal towards the bottom half of the image, but I would like to see much more.

When looking at the picture, I want to see more detail and from further away.
Do you have a bigger file of the picture?

In addition to this, it is really not necessary to use the flash in such a condition. Rather, using it here almost forces the camera to overexpose and flatten out the picture as it is trying to compensate for the lack of a return light.

In any case, TFS!
Julia

leiju (1679) 2009-02-24 13:30

A regular street sight, the kind that brings us into the place, a worthwhile contribution, IMO.
However, it would have been about ten worlds better if the man had been sitting towards us rather than away. Now we are excluded from the scene, we remain passers-by, voyeurs, tourists...

Because the man is turned away, we are left wandering around the image, with no easy point to fix, nowhere to lay our eyes upon. The sign atop is slightly too high and out of the way to jump at us straight away. I allowed myself to post a cropped version of the picture in the workshop, to try and tackle the issue by tightening the scene, making the brick wall part of the frame to this diagonal escape into space. I'm not sure it works, I would be grateful if You could let me know what You think of this approach :)

Thanks for sharing!

leiju (1679) 2009-02-24 13:05

Ah, the wonderful mass of TE entries that never get the attention they deserve...

This shot might seem boring at first glance to whomever is running after perfectly technically mastered masterpieces ready to be used in travel magazines, but, in my opinion, it is a little gem. I hope You don't mind me doing a little workshop to bring its qualities out ;)

Yes, the tan is out, and yes, the sharpness lacks, and yes, oh my, there's a nasty piece of stonewall that has made its way into our sight... but this picture is so much more than its faults!

First off, I had no knowledge of such hills anywhere else but in my wildest imagination. It would be nice if You could add a little bit more to your note, be it even a link to the Wikipedia page about the Chocolate Hills to give us more info about this place. What I would like to know more about in the note section, is your impressions about the place, whether there were a lot of tourists or not, what the weather was like, and so on and so forth...

Second of all, this is a wonderful capture! I do not know whether You did it on purpose but those clouds add the whole depth to this image! The light is wonderful, even though better exposure would have been, well, better. There's a great depth in the distance thanks to the darkened hills that contrast with the light up front. No, there's no direct sunlight, but we don't need it, we have enough light as it is.

You'll notice that I lifted the grey veil off from the image and tried to bring the colours back to Life. I dare believe that the image I posted in the workshop is perhaps slightly closer to the colours as You experienced them and which made You capture and then post this image. Let me know if I am completely off the mark :)

All in all, I can only say Thank You. This is a marvellous sight and I wish to now witness it for myself one time... whenever I return to wandering around Asia again, perhaps ;)

leiju (1679) 2009-02-24 12:07

It's been more than a year... but I still take the time to write words that will probably never reach those to whom they are intended.

I followed the link from the homepage featuring Polonaise's "critique" of this shot. I read all the comments and browsed through the replies and can't help but laugh at the silliness of us dear humans.

While many admire your work for its technical qualities, its razor sharpness and perfectly balanced everything and while I can do nothing but congratulate you for our outstanding work, I must admit that this "controversial" shot is probably one of the pictures I like best. It has nothing to do with the face, which is more than obvious, but rather with the space you leave for Nature. All your other images are so perfectly composed that they take Nature onto an advertisement platform, leaving it stripped from its rough beauty. Here at least, there is something to feel.

Yes, it is absolutely contrary to whatever technical masterpieces You have managed to create, and so disturbs those running behind the bandwagon of perfected and human mastered landscapes. But at least with this image, You have managed to pass beyond perfected tourism shots to tangible Life.

A name for your picture?
How about The Chill of Existence?

Don't hide it, celebrate it! It tells much more than the stunning technically perfect masterpieces ever will...

leiju (1679) 2009-01-11 7:59

Hoi.... une photo tout à fait surprenante! On se croirait dans un autre monde, près du pôle Nord! Une composition tout à fait merveilleuse avec des couleurs à l'aube, comme je les aime tant :)
Tu as cherché ces arbres longtemps, ou tu connais déjà le coin comme le fond de ta poche? ;)

Merci pour ce partage!

leiju (1679) 2008-12-26 17:17

What a lovely shot!
I really enjoy the endless similarity between all of the buildings, broken only by the church tower as well as the trees below.

So often we get random shots of random moments on TE, and as I have been travelling around I have always missed shots that capture a general look of any given place. And this shot certainly satisfies that particular desire of mine :)

You did a great job with the light - it's indeed soft, but also endlessly luminous.
Your framing is interesting and gets the point across really well, yet I yearn to see more of what's going on outside the the right side of this scene... Does the city continue to sprawl like this? Or does it change into another shape and form?

So, while the high-rises and the church definitely call for a vertical shot of the scene, I am curious for a more horizontal view of the whole. Perhaps it's not possible due to the trees? Then You might want to try to include them in your shot, to show how the city really shows itself from the parking lot of Coit Tower :D

Thanks for sharing!

leiju (1679) 2008-10-09 1:47

Weolcome to TE Ronald!

It would be of great help if You would supply even the smallest of Note's to the picture :)

The shot itself is interesting, without being outright amazing. You have chosen quite a neat juxtaposition of human created shapes on simple natural background. Just looking at this picture it looks like humans are much better at creating intricate designs than nature is. While this is not really the whole truth, the picture You have chosen to display here is quite good at making us think about human creation.

The other interesting part of it is the complete lack of humans. We see no person. There's plenty of human creation to look at but not a single easily defined human being. I like this shot for these and many more reasons.

What are You trying to tell with this picture? What is your vision of the shot, why did You choose to shoot this shot as You did. These would be good infos to have on your note.

Overall it is a quite yet powerful shot :)
Thanks for sharing!
Julia