Critiques

  maderlock (167) 2007-08-04 2:11

This looks a lot like the effect you get when you use wire-wool cages. Compare to http://www.homeofpoi.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=353

It is very dangerous, as this is essentially molten metal you see here, rather than burning paraffin.

This isn't a bad shot, but this is one of the easier first-spinning effects to capture on film.

maderlock (167) 2007-07-16 14:36

Beautiful reflections, colour and lighting in this shot. The quality of the lighting and shiny floor makes me think of a Science Fiction film set more than anything else, which is strange given the evident age of the building!

maderlock (167) 2007-07-14 11:34

Great colours and framing. The cleared ground around the tomb make for a very simple composition. I'm guessing the sky has been adjusted a bit, as it looks polarised but you didn't use a polariser?

One point - I keep wondering if this is quite square or whether it need rotating to the left slightly? It may just be that the dome is off-centre throwing me.

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 18:29

The combination of the ultra-wide angle and the polariser make for a very dramatic picture. The distortion of the former makes the daisies look as if they are paint that has been splattered across the grass, and the deepening from the latter gives a sky that can't be real, but is very striking. It's hard to tell where the sea meets the sky, but that is not a criticism :) It is the twisted tree on the cliff edge in the sun that is most Greek for me about this picture. Nice work.

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 17:51

I thought I recognised this mountain. I'm staying in Seattle at the moment and most days I see the mountain at some point. As this photo shows, the way it rises from its foothills makes quite ghostly. This is a nice sharp shot of the mountain, though the landscape below suggests that the photo has been over-saturated as it doesn't look realistic. I would leave the mountain and desaturate the bottom slightly, I think.

Where exactly was this taken from?

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 17:46

This is a very beautiful image, sharp and well-observed. The early evening lighting makes for very striking colours. It's almost a tri-tone picture with only browns and blues, which complement each other with the blue flowing through the brown, in the reflections in the water. Even though this is beautiful, the lack of any other colour makes the scene quite stark. It is easy to believe that this water is all that allows life here.

Excellent note.
Maderlock

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 14:34

Shooting up the hill gives some nice converging lines between the road and the building. Before I saw the pinkish house on the right I wondered if you had made your photo sepia! There's a whole palette of browns here. I might have been tempted to lose the right-hand house and just have the brown building, but I think that might unbalance the shot.

Always nice to see photos of places you've been. I'll be visiting Prague again next year and I'll keep my eye out for this building :)

Cheers,
Maderlock

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 14:01

Good sharp picture, but a slow enough exposure to give the people some movement. Train stations have these marvellous vanishing-point properties with all their parallel lines. The clock breaks the monotony of these lines and the people make it more human. Given the age of Kings Cross, if you ignore the modern train, the atmosphere of this B&W photo makes it feel like it could have been taken a hundred years ago :)

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 13:54

Perfect composition - the lean of the wicker-man seems to be followed by the rest of the picture. The lines in the field, the vapour-trails in the sky and the road all lead the eye from the sharply defined artwork, connecting it to the background. The colours are very vibrant, in part I expect thanks to the polariser. The palate of blue green and brown is very natural (by definiition?) :)

Wonderful photo.

maderlock (167) 2007-07-13 13:49

The huge foreground ball seems to loom out of the image, in part because its the only thing in focus (that's not a bad thing - it's a good thing). You can feel its weight.

I like the fact that the second ball has had a small circle spray-painted on it, which makes it seem like a huge lawn-bowling ball that has come to rest in this square.

That is the most surreal note I've read in a while. I have no idea what it means :)