Lots of trial and error! Timer, tripod and sitting on a stool!
Thank you!

Beautiful. Would be great for Shallow DOF also :)

Great detail... and a really interesting idea to frame it so you can't see the pupil at all.

Thank you!
Was a tough one to get right!

Great idea. I would have cropped JUST a little, tiny bit more from the left, so as to get rid of that last little bit of pupil.
Very creative thinking, photographing the eye, but leaving out the one thing that everybody would consider essential.

Good capture! The only critiques I'd suggest are the overcast skies in the upper left corner and half-cut H in the bottom; tighter crop on the left would help it. I like how square crop works here.

The funny thing is I originally had it cropped a bit more to almost entirely get rid of the H on the license plate--and I am not entirely sure why I reverted back. (I think part of it was just wanting to give the "winged lady" on the hood a bit of breathing room on the left side.)

Great shot. I guess you applied some desaturation here. It certainly goes well with the weather. This square crop works well indeed.

the cropping is perfect
i love the rain
the car seems like its almost overexposed but not...
just right.

Beautyful shot, excellent rendering (HDR-like) and wonderful expression on the man's face. Definitely a favorite.
Best regards,
Huub

Magical

Really beautiful image. It almost has the feeling of a painting.

Excellent, belle ambiance...

I agree with the others... great tones, interesting texture, but I'd also liked to have seen a bit more DOF to get more of the leaf in focus. Although I'd disagree a little with Noah: I didn't even really notice the webs on first glance until I read your description because they are largely out of focus. I think if they were more in focus, they'd distract from the leaf.

A touch more focus and it'd be fantastic. But it is good and love the colours..

I like the cob webs. I think it adds to the delicate photo and the leaf itself.

I love the colours! The composition is very nice to, although I wish a bit more had been in focus, but that is my personal opion.

Greeting, Laura
www.lauravink.nl

More focus or a little bit more sharpening would have been great. Still a great a subject.

I have one hanging outside near my outdoor table. I sometimes sit there and watch. I will have to get the camera out and see if I can compete with this... Nice one Amber. BTW, where do you live in VA? I grew up in Buchanan and went to JMU before it was called that, still know way back then as Madison College.

We are near Lynchburg. I'd love to see what you can capture with your feeder, please do compete! :-)

Great capture. Very impressive. The only thing I'd say is I find it a bit dark over-all. (And maybe even just a slight lightening of the image might make the hummingbird "pop" from the background a bit more? Maybe?)

Very difficult shot to capture. Beautiful colors, just an outstanding photo.

Impressive one!

Thanks Jim. If you both feel the square format would be better here, I'll try it out one day. Problem is that this is low quality scan of a print. Cropping would degrade the (low, I admit) quality even further. I'm still using film cameras a lot and to obtain the best digitals from slides/negatives, perhaps I should buy a neg scanner.

belle composition, j'aime l'espace que tu laisses en hait de la photo, cela donne une superbe profondeur, et avec en cadeau le reflet du chien, parfait

I like the lines created by the full-size (not square), makes him look impatient to get going to wherever that leads. The leash did throw me for a bit, but I too like my photos straight from the cam.

What a stunning capture ~ a very unique perspective. The reflection totally makes it for me. :)

I agree with soreks that you should photoshop out the leash. I don't however feel cropping is necessary as I like the lost dog in a crazy world feel it lends to....

thanks for all the comments, but please note that this photo is part of a series:
www.flickr.com/photos/malana-lars/sets/72157604383...

Maybe it's just because I have taking to the square crop more and more in my own work, but I think the square format works for this image. Sure a landscape cropping might emphasize "empty space" more, but I think that still comes across the way you've done it here. It's a really nice photo.

Lars, thanks for sharing the link to the collection. I would make the same composition comment about the whole series. This type of subjects, it seems to me, feels "cramped" or restricted in a square format. Just my opinion.

Lars, very interesting series. Although this shot is strong on its own as is (colours, detail and foreground are fabulous), I would also prefer the main subject to be offset from centre to give the feel that it is a bit more isolated (preferably to the right so your eye has to travel across the frame and up the stairs). It just seems a bit too contrived with the current composition. Looking at your comments above is interesting given that you have invited critique.

Great picture, I love the isolated feeling of the shot. The fact that you can't see the tide anywhere adds to this i think and i especially like that...

I really like this image a lot. Have you tried dodging some of the spectators just a bit to bring them out a little more? Great job.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I agree with most that the lower 1/3 of the image is too dark. For most displays the contrast is just too low here. I played with this for days and the more I tried to lighten it the worse it got. There just isn't enough there to boost it much more than I have. This image does look great printed though, so overall I am happy with it.

Oh and I should also point out that this is a self portrait. That's my big head in the way there. The purpose of the image was the silhouette not the fireworks. Something I have wanted to do for a long time.

This is a great shot. I would crop it off just below the horizon. I might even crop into the top of the fireworks which would give the viewer a clearer story.

VERY nice, missed this one, really well done. I do agree with the comments about a little too much at the bottom. How long was this exposure?

Thanks Beamer.

Lens: 18 mm | Aperture: f 7.1 | Shutter: 15 sec | ISO: 100

The three fireworks were in succession not at the same time. This was the only one I jumped in front of that night. All my friends (sitting in front of me) had a good laugh at me for not watching the fireworks. I was too busy "working".

Just playing around a bit with some of the old slides that I scanned a couple of night ago. Sorta a happy accident thingy, what do you guys think??

definitely a happy accident thingy

j'ai beaucoup de mal avec cette photo, il y a une tres bonne idée, mais je trouve la photo trop chargé, pour moi pas lisible. mais c'est un essai, et il faut en faire pour faire des découvertes photos

My first thought was what the heck is this... but on closer look, it's kind of trippy in a pleasing kind of way.

I really like all the textures you've created here. Adds a real depth to the image.

This shot creates a great feeling of space. I agree with needing a bit more sharpness of the mountains tho.

I like this shot. I would crop 30% from the right side and 20% from the top. Then pull some more detail out of the hills so that we can see them layering on top of each other. I think that you can crop and still preserve the sense of space. Hope that helps. You have a great shot to work with.

the mountains catch my eye much better than the boat...i think perhaps focus more on that--the detail is great, esp in the distant one

I really like the feeling in this photo, it would fit in the empty spaces topic very well!

Thank you all for your comments! I appreciate all of the feedback.

This was a particularly foggy/hazy day in the mountains so that's why a lot of the detail is lost. I think it adds an almost surreal feeling to it, but agree that sharper details in the background would have been nice!