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| Red
Deer |
| Mark Says: Well composed shot of the deer. Good eye contact. Some good colour on its back from the sun, but other than that lacks punch somehow. |
| Di Says My own entry so no comment |
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| Christmas
at the Wheel - SECOND |
| Mark Says: Well taken night time shot of the Falkirk Wheel. The wheel itself is well positioned and I like the way the hooks point back into the picture to keep the eye moving around. |
| Di Says A beautifully exposed shot of the Falkirk Wheel. It’s nice to see the star filter being used to good effect. Great colours and a long exposure of 33 seconds. Focus is excellent, and expect this will do excellently in the voting this month. |
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| Falkirk
Wheel at Night |
| Mark Says: Different view of the wheel this time. I would have preferred it just a touch higher in the frame to get the reflection in the bottom with a bit more space below it – there is plenty of room at the top – could even be done in post easily enough. Good effort though. |
| Di Says Another beautifully exposed shot, by another photographer on the group. This time with reflections in the water. It almost looks like an unusual bird in the frame. I might have cropped the shot a little tighter to the top of the shot to balance the bottom reflections. |
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| Lights!
- THIRD |
| Mark Says: Another night time shot – of I assume a tunnel. The slight angle to the tunnel gives a leading line into the shot, but no real focal point at the end of it – apart from blackness, although that is possibly the point! Anyway, should do well. |
| Di Says An interesting tunnel shot – the approach from the canal to the Falkirk Wheel itself. Great colours, with the focus of the shot nicely placed on thirds. |
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| Brabyns
Park in winter |
| Mark Says: Interesting shot over the football pitches, Doesn’t have enough interest in the sky for me – but I do like the mist. Shame there is not more of it or a higher viewpoint. |
| Di Says: My entry and no comment though I did like the aircraft trails in the sky |
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| Sunset
Mood Indigo - WINNER |
| Mark Says: This is a fabulous shot. Lots of lovely interest in the sky, the horizon and orange cloud is on the bottom third and the grasses in the foreground hold it all up very well. This should do very well. |
| Di Says A fabulous sunset shot with an excellent tonal range. The eye is led round the shot without there being too much darkness anywhere. It’s beautiful, and should be framed, and hung on a wall. Well done |
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| Sunrise
Fire and Ice |
| Mark Says: I like the main tree trunk running up the left hand side of the frame, but I’m not sure about the twigs going over all the picture. Breaks it up too much for me. The sky colour is fantastic though. |
| Di Says Another great shot, the sunrise looks firey, with the snow being a complete contrast. Without the tree in silhouette, it would have been a nothing. Everything beautifully placed on thirds. |
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| Holiday
Lights - Key West |
| Mark Says: A festive shot, which is very bright and cheerful. The out of focus lights are very nicely rendered circular – I’m guessing a good lens was used here as there is nothing in the Exif. I keep looking at the dark space on the left hand side and wondering if it would be better not being there. And can’t make up my mind. |
| Di Says A first entry from one of our newer members. An excellent shot, an abstract of Christmas lights. You can just about make out, if you look closely the individual bulbs. I really like this shot, well done. |
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| Shadow
on a wall |
| Mark Says: This is very apt with the number of Jurassic park films that have been on recently! I like this shot – its well done, but perhaps the shadow could have been a little darker to give it more definition and just a tad lower to get all the head in the frame. |
| Di Says A simple shot, with bags of impact. Nice to see something totally different in these competitions. The fact that the shadow is on an angle too helps the overall composition. |
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| A
Winter's morning on Strensall Common, York |
| Mark Says: Nice bright image which has good symmetry. Sky colour has been retained well. Good colour overall too, which I like. |
| Di Says Overall, this is a lovely winter shot – but there is something about it that makes me a bit uncomfortable. I think it might be that the colours look a wee bit saturated, and it might have been oversharpened. Having said that, the composition is nice, with the eye being led straight into the shot. |
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| A
Walk |
| Mark Says: A good shot – I like the way the locks draw the eye to the two people in the image. Midtones may have benefited from being a bit brighter – but as it is, it does look pretty cold! |
| Di Says Nicely composed shot of the canal and two walkers. What would have improved it for me, would have been the walkers coming towards the camera, rather than away from it. The lock gate is set nicely on thirds and the reflections enhance the shot for me. Well done. |
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| Follow
him, He's got the map |
| Mark Says: Good fun shot – And not a straight horizon in sight! I like the path running into the shot from the bottom right to disappear over the hill pulling the eys right through the picture. I might have cropped it to loose the fence post – but again that may have looked worse! Like it a lot. |
| Di Says Good colours and exposure make this picture. It’s a shame that some of the walkers are not wearing red, as they would have stood out so much more from the brown winter grass. As it is, a pleasant scene with the tree on the top of the hill being a good focal point. |
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| Sun
Down |
| Mark Says: This gives me memories of warm times! The sun is possibly a little too central – reframing it to be more to the left may have helped. The horizon looks level – nothing worse than the sea falling off the page! |
| Di Says The lens flare in this shot, actually makes it for me. I’m not entirely happy with the sun being bang in the middle of the shot, but the off centre horizon helps balance this out. It would have been even better if the boat had been a little more focal, or further into the shot. The exposure is nice though, and the waves seem to have feel of movement. I wonder what it would have looked like with a longer exposure softening the water. |
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| Frosty
Start |
| Mark Says: The frost is a bit hard to see – and the two brown leaves at the top should have been removed prior to taking the shot. |
| Di Says I had to look at this twice before working out what it was. And sometimes that’s good in a shot. The focus is absolutely spot on, and it would have been great to have seen an even bigger shot of this – perhaps zooming in on the frost. |
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| Sunflower
|
| Mark Says: This is my entry. This has just been cropped very slightly and the saturation increased a little – the flower was red! |
| Di Says A wonder if this has been given any treatment in photoshop. It looks like it’s a sketch of some kind. The colours are vibrant, and the focus is perfect. Well done. |
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| Eye |
| Mark Says: Good close up of the childs eye. I like the way its looking across the frame into the space. |
| Di Says An excellent shot with lovely catchlights. I think I might have cropped it still more closely, so that you could immediately see the individual eyelashes. The very shallow DOF helps immeasurably |
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| Daisy's
Hand |
| Mark Says: Good B&W conversion. The angle of the fingers is a little strained and it looks like it has had the background photo shopped as the little finger looks odd. Good effort though. |
| Di Says Another close up shot, this time of a baby’s hand. Perfect fingers and nails with no distractions in the background. Once again the short DOF makes the shot. |
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| Closed
for Christmas |
| Mark Says: Another good B&W conversion. I like the diagonal line running up the image, pulls the eyes in nicely. Good shot. |
| Di Says (Capitals please photographer in your title) – Lovely treatment of what could have been a boring shot. It actually looks better larger than the small version would have you believe. I’m only slightly unhappy about the burn out on the top left hand side of the shot, which I found to be a distraction. |