Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. 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. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

The Peace Bridge — At Last! by JAS_Photo

This month’s choice is (click to see the larger ver­sion of this image)  The Peace Bridge — At Last! by JAS_Photo

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

1 — Com­po­si­tion — This is a very strong com­po­si­tion and the bridge itself acts as a fan­tas­tic lead­ing line. It guides our eye beau­ti­fully into the image. In addi­tion, aside from the shape of the bridge itself, there are also other “mini-shapes” in the bridge itself as well as all around the image. These other mini-shapes add a lot of inter­est to the image.

2 — Tones and post pro­cess­ing — The bridge itself is selec­tively coloured in this image and I like that very much in this case. I feel it works and offers a new take on what is likely a heav­ily pho­tographed piece of infra-structure. For me it sug­gests ‘some­thing new’ being intro­duced into a city. The desat­u­ra­tion of the back­ground com­pli­ments the bridge and really makes the bridge pop.

3 — Story and per­spec­tive — This bridge is still a work in progress and we can see a crane in the back­ground that sug­gests this. We see the bridge “mov­ing” toward the back­ground which sug­gests to me some­thing new being intro­duced to some­thing older. The angle or per­spec­tive from which the image was taken was very well cho­sen to sug­gest this story.

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 JAS_Photo for cre­at­ing this won­der­ful image!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. 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. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Fight Club! by Lizardqing

This month’s choice is (click to see the larger ver­sion of this image) Fight Club! by Lizardqing

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

1 — Timing/Decisive moment. You gotta have a quick trig­ger fin­ger to catch a moment like this or you will miss it. We’ve all missed fab oppor­tu­ni­ties like this, or mis­framed oppor­tu­ni­ties like this; good on Lizardquing for this fab capture.

2 — Com­po­si­tion — I really like the com­po­si­tion here. It is espe­cially impres­sive given the speed needed to catch this image. I really like the faun at the right side as well as the posi­tion of the trees.

3 — Exposure/lighting/colour — Expo­sure looks very good here and could eas­ily have been missed given the light­ing. Good choice of shutter-speed to keep things fairly sharp but still reveal motion in the deers’ front legs. Lovely colour palette as well. The light­ing is won­der­ful in this image, good on Lizardqing for being there early enough to capture.

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 for cap­tur­ing this won­der­ful moment!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. 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. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Autumn Web by Richard

This month’s choice is (click to see the larger ver­sion of this image)  Autumn Web by Richard

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

1 — Plan­ning and exe­cu­tion — This strik­ing image is the result of plan­ning, it didn’t “just hap­pen” and it wasn’t a quick snap. The light­ing, comp and post-processing are all well thought out here. The result is a strik­ing moody fall image.

2 — Com­po­si­tion — details — post­pro­cess­ing — Lovely ren­dered details like the spi­der as well as the spider’s web all con­tribute to the com­po­si­tion here. Spi­der is framed nicely between the red leaves and against the back­light. The post­pro­cess­ing includ­ing the vignette and pos­si­ble selec­tive sharp­en­ing are guid­ing our eyes thought­fully with­out distractions.

3 — Light­ing — Mood — Back­light­ing is a chal­leng­ing light to deal with, but Richard bal­ances it well with off cam­era flash. The end result is an image with a lovely mood that would likely have felt too dark with­out the added light.

4 — Selec­tive focus — A wide aper­ture is well used here to get the dreamy back­ground bokeh. It adds another ‘layer’ to the image.

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 Richard for cre­at­ing this strik­ing image!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. 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. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

My Lit­tle Friend by Wicked Dark

This Month’s choice is  (click to see the large ver­sion of this image) My Lit­tle Friend by Wicked Dark.

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Sharp­ness — It’s dif­fi­cult to get this level of sharp­ness when doing macro work and the sharp­ness on the crawler here is won­der­ful and very strik­ing! On the oppo­site end the back­ground out of focus ele­ments also work well to iso­late the pri­mary subject.

Com­po­si­tion — All eyes are on the bug here and this is due to good com­po­si­tion with almost no dis­trac­tions. The curved part of the crawler is well seen due to the comp and the diag­o­nal branch at right act as a frame and helps keep our eyes on the most impor­tant element.

Colour/Lighting — The image busts with colour due to shoot­ing in softer light along with some (likely) pro­cess­ing to enhance the greens.

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 Wicked Dark for cap­tur­ing this strik­ing crawler.