Texture

Another Mexican sunset, originally uploaded by tandikes.

If you look at this shot at a decent size, you'll see what I see - the incredible textures in the clouds. It's as though they're made of silk - smooth, flowing, and almost touchable.

Just a brilliant capture, as well as being beautiful.

More on macro and depth-of-field

Curly, Larry and Mo, originally uploaded by tandikes.

I think this is a stellar example of effective use of depth-of-field. There are a couple of key points:

* the flowers are in sharp focus (at least two of them)
* you can get a sense of what's in the background, but it's indistinct enough not to distract the eye

While this may not be the most artistic shot I've seen, and the flowers aren't "pretty", I think this is a lovely shot because of the effective way in which it draws the viewer to see exactly what the photographer intended.

How to present a beautiful woman

3, originally uploaded by Locar Chang.

There are both good and not-as-good aspects to this shot.

Good: she's a lovely woman; good use of depth-of-field so that we focus on the woman, not the background; focus is sharp and clear and color is good.

Not-so-good: the upper background, being almost the same color as the woman's hair, detracts from our focus; the lighting is a bit harsh, creating bright highlights on the planes of her cheeks and forehead; the object behind her right shoulder also distracts from the focus.

Given that this shot was apparently taken at some location, and we all find ourselves taking pictures when we don't have control over the environment, I think this is quite good.

I'm learning about how to make them better.

It's the subtle touches...

Cold creek, originally uploaded by bnzai9.

[Holiday distractions behind me, I'm back on track]

This is one of the rarest shots I've seen in a while. At first glance, it's yet-another-excellent-water-picture. Nice rocks, nice water, good perspective and composition.

Then I looked a bit longer and started to see the subtle bits of color on the rocks. You have to look at this one a bit larger to really get it.

The bits of light/color change this from y-a-e-w-p to a rare bit of beauty.

Wintery Sunday Morning

Wintery Sunday Morning, originally uploaded by deep_shot.

A lovely example of what can be done with minimal color, high contrast, and simple composition. I really like this one.

Intriguing Composition

On The Water, originally uploaded by Shaeree624.

This one engages me.

It sort of follows the rule of thirds. The depth of field is good, but nothing special. But there's something about the overall composition that just draws me in.

Partly, it's the peninsula that sticks out into the middle, juxtaposed with the bridge in the background. I enjoy natural elements contrasted with manmade elements.

The overall image is sharp, well focused, and the color is good. Not great, nothing to write home about, but very nice.

And it still engages me.

Bragging

Tiled Tiled Eye 01, originally uploaded by DigiDragon.

When I get a comment like this one, I can't help but feel good about my own work.

This shot combines a background that I created piece by piece, a photograph of a woman's eye, and a bunch of work to get the clarity, detail, color, and overall composition just so.

At least one person thinks it worked. :-)