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Blue Moon
A picture
with outstanding impact, generated with subtle complexity. On the one
hand, the picture does have three, somewhat conflicting components - the
roof on the left, the moon, and the"chapel" on the right. But the
dynamics of the composition are interesting. While one's eye is
attracted to the first two, it is the interior of the structure on the
right that the eye is drawn into, and thus becomes the focal point. And
while the eye travels from left to right, just before the eye move out
of the picture, it is pulled back into that interior. Which then allows
the eye to repeat the cycle. The subtle texture in the sky is a vital
component of the picture, in that it prevents a large area from becoming
distracting, without being boring.
An interesting exercise
is to reverse the picture, because the dynamics that make the picture so
successful, tend to fail - one’s eye enters the "chapel", and tends to
be held there.
Not quite happy with the
title as the moon is not the core of the picture - it is more a
totality of the components. To me it has feelings of science fiction,
and aliens, but off hand I cannot think of a better title.
Grade 5
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Brooklyn
To the photographer, this
picture is probably a great treasure. But it illustrates the
main problem - the picture is being viewed by someone who has no
connection with the subject, and thus sees the picture and not
the person. In this case, we have a (sorry) fairly ordinary child in
fairly ordinary lighting, and poor surroundings. There is no "cuteness"
or "charm" about the child that stimulates interest for a viewer who
does not know the subject.
The picture would be given
some help by cropping. One needs to mask off the bar that has been
jammed down her back, and I think that there could also be a substantial
crop made on the right hand side, to remove the distracting hand near
the edge. It would also be necessary to eliminate the arm up to the
elbow, so that one does become aware that the arm has been “chopped”
off. Little can be done about the white dinosaur tail unfortunately,
but the cropping suggested, plus a little off the top as well, would all
help. Sadly, little can be done about the pink clothing.
I guess the real issue
here is that a “grab shot is being used as a competition picture. One
must consider the purpose of a picture before taking it.
Grade 2
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