Winner Chosen - August 2012 - Admin's choice - Image of the month

[Marko]

Hi members,

In case you are new around here this is where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from all the photos nominated by other members during that month in the Member's monthly choice forum.

Just so it's clear, the photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I've come to realize it's not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That's why there are categories in photo contests.

My goal is to simply choose an excellent photo and talk about why I think it rocks.

This month's choice is Secret Solitude by Lizardqing.

I chose this image for several reasons:

1 - Selective focus - Selective sharpness - I'm a huge fan of the selective sharp areas in this image as they are guiding my eye extremely well. Our eyes are naturally drawn to the sharper areas of an image and in this case the sharper areas deliberately coincide with the main focal point of the image which is the midground rocks at left.

2 - Composition - Love it. Interesting elements in all the planes of the image and those elements work together to make the entire image interesting and a delight to look at.

3 - Mood - That fog is creating an incredible mood in the background and it contrasts so well with the clarity in the foreground.

4 - Colour- Exposure - The soft and lower contrast light is allowing the colours to become really saturated and gorgeous. Obviously how a photographer renders colour is a very personal choice. For my eye this level of saturation in the greens is about the max I like to see in an image. It's poppy but not too poppy for me.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again Lizardqing!