Fuzzy or mysterious?

Art of Dreams, originally uploaded by adrians_art.

Sometimes a photo just seems ill-focused or fuzzy. In this case, I find the composition to be exceptional.

A shot like this seems to have the ability to evoke different emotions. Is it mysterious and fantastic, or dark and sinister? Is the light on the left growing, or being consumed by the dark and the mist.

This shot encourages the viewer to spend some time just looking, finding the subtleties and mysteries.

The Magic of Black and White

, originally uploaded by tmorris31.

I find it fascinating that this photo is so captivating. No color.

And yet there's something magic happening here.

The look in the little girl's eyes, the way in which her face and that of the stuffed animal line up, the difficulty in judging her emotions - is she grinning slightly, sad, quirky, thoughtful?

I find this quite compelling.

"The Dragon Cloud"

"The Dragon Cloud", originally uploaded by * Nina *.

Sometimes I come across something that just makes me say "Oh, my!"

First, there's the color palette of this shot - amazing tones and subtleties. If you draw your eyes to the top, which initially seems less interesting, you'll see a variety of colors and shades in the clouds. The richness of this visual experience is quite stunning.

And then there's the clouds themselves, which do indeed look like a dragon - in fact, this could easily be seen as the Worm Ouroborous - the world-spanning worm eating its own tail.

Stellar work, I think, both by nature and the photographer.

Macro, Colors

A630 1031r, originally uploaded by sonia furtado.

First of all, I'm always amazed when someone captures something like a fast-moving insect in total stillness this way. Then there's the clarity of the shot - look closely, and you'll see that it's ALL clearly in focus and sharp.

Finally, the contrast of the colors brings out the richness of the insect's colors and lines and body amazingly well.

Fooling the Eye

high royds 043, originally uploaded by tractorpirate.

Most photos with reflections show them either below (water, floor), or from the front or side (mirrors, windows). What I like about this shot is that the reflection is above, which causes a moment of disorientation.

Add to that that it's an interesting composition done in B&W - high contrast between windows and walls, a few linear elements in the foreground, and the windows going off into the distance - and I think this is quite a good example of photographic art.

Presentation and Framing

Texas Wildflower 08, originally uploaded by DigiDragon.

This is another one of my own shots. I took this at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center here in Austin.

With a bit of cropping, and creating the presentation, I think it's a pretty solid image.

Note the depth of field, such that the berries (?) in the center are sharp and clear, some of the leaves are clear, and the background blurs out of focus.

I used a framing technique I learned from Digital Photo magazine (September 2007, page 76) to put the inner frame partially behind the image. Pretty cool stuff. I think that the framing adds a special element to the shot.