DigaPixBlog

Zydeco is the music of the French speaking Creoles of Louisiana which has evolved over the past 150 years, an amalgam music that has integrated all sorts of traditional and nontraditional forms of dance and folk tunes.  Today this lively music is played by hundreds of Zydeco bands in America and Europe; it even has its own category in the Grammy awards. 

This second photograph of the Cajun singer is a little different in tone than the first.  Here she is not singing but rather more introspective.  She appears to be concentrating on her singing.  In this image I particularly like the angle of the instrument and the turn of her head which captures and conveys movement.  This shot is cropped tighter than the first which reduces the amount of background we have to contend with. 

Her facial expression is interesting, almost defiant, unusual for a shot of a performing musician.  There is one thing that bothers me.  The skull and cross bones on the accordion keeps drawing my attention away from the subject.  I know it was there and is part of her persona  Perhaps it is just me but I find it a little distracting.

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Macro photography opens up an alien world that exists all around us, a bazaar world where the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.  The macro lens like the microscope shows us what reality is made of and how it is put together.  We take so many things for granted and often fail to see what is right in front of us. 

How many times have we seen a spider web with drops of due sparkling in the sun.  Our first reaction is to capture what we see with our ordinary eye.  But this photographer went further and came in close to discover how the droplets related to the gauzy fibers of the web.  The resulting image shows a world where water takes on an amebic life giving the illusion of a living form.  The macro fibers of the spider web interlink these organic shapes.

The photo-artist has tinted the composition with a green hue, normally not my favorite, but in this case it does add to the alien feeling of the image. There is not much going on in the way of graphics but the chaos is held together by the interlinking fibers and repeated patterns.  Overall this is an interesting study.

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Mood is less specific than emotion.  It is a feeling, good or bad, that we take away from a situation or a scene.  Images often evoke moods in the viewer which may be felt more intensely by some than others.  The lighting in a photograph combined with the subject matter set the tone of some compositions in a way that asks the viewer to intemperate the story being presented.  Emotions evoke feeling of anger, joy, love, patriotism, etc., but a mood is a subtle tone that covers a broader more indefinable feelings.

This image presented is a mundane scene that we have all experienced, the hotel room, nothing to photograph there, nothing extraordinary, it’s just a hotel room.  But the photographer has turned it into a work of art that the viewer can read like a good novel, and each reader will come away with a different story.  The original photograph has been manipulated in a subtle way to give the illustration a dream like quality while at the same time not distorting the presentation of the subject.  Using a green hue, which is normally not a good thing, adds a mood to the image that is difficult to express, a little sad and yet familiar.  It also adds a certain timeless quality to the composition. 

By showing the wall to the left with the picture in forced perspective the photo-artist has added death to the image.  This combined with the bed on the right focus our attention on the one point perspective of the light and then on what it illuminates.  This ordinary hotel room is telling a narrative that is somewhere between a mystery and a suspense.  It draws you in and holds your attention while you find you are trying to complete the rest of the story.

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What makes a good composition?  The answer is the assembly of elements in and artful arrangement that guides the viewer’s eye and unifies the work.  When composing an image we need to think about what ties the elements together.  If they are not linked the photograph becomes a collection of elements not a unified illustration.

The photograph of a portion of this classic automobile (Fiat Spider?) is intended to show some of the interesting detail of the design.  The photographer has concentrated on just a portion of the head light and bumper with  a turning light as the center of our attention.  I like the way they have canted the angle of the image giving a feeling of movement to the composition.

The photographer may want to consider the elements and their relationship to each other.  There are three subjects in this image; chrome bar, orange light and head light.  They appear to be disjointed; they each stand alone without a graphic connection.  Perhaps they could be tied together by cropping tighter and using the frame as the unifying element.

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Public performances are a good place to get interesting photographs of singers, dancer or actors.  Often pictures are hampered by the restrictions of predetermined seating arrangements which restrict the public’s access to the stage.  But outside open air events afford the photographer the opportunity to get up close to the stage during the performance without interfering with other peoples enjoyment of the entertainment.

This image was taken at the Simi Valley Cajun Music Festival.  The performer is a Zydeco entertainer that had the place rocking.  The photographer captured her portrait while she was performing with her accordion.  The focus of the image is just right, concentrating on her face and the microphone.  Her instrument in the foreground is soft and out of focus but distinct enough to lead us into the image.  The shot is taken at such an angle that the background is the simple white tent that covered the venue.  This eliminated the clutter of the rest of the stage.

The color appears to have shifted a little to the orange side but this does not hurt the image.  This tight composition shows only what is necessary to tell the story of the singer and at the same time captures a moment of her exciting performance of what has been called bluegrass with a French accent.

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Flowers are difficult to photograph because we have all seen so many of them represented in images over the years.  Many if not most are just record shots of nature’s beauties.  It takes the eye of an artist to interpret the flower and show it to us in a new way. 

This ball of glowing color and light tells us that this photo-artist has seen beyond the pretty flower into the heart of the subject.  The photograph was taken up close cropping out the environment and getting to the lines and colors displayed within the subject.  The inner illumination radiates light like a fire within a smoldering volcano.  Notice the cant of the axis of the compostion; about twenty dagrees off the horixontal, this adds addtional interest to the layout.

This image would be eye catching at any size form a postage stamp to a wall size poster.  It is color and simplicity that sets this composition apart.

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Children can make wonderful subjects but too often we only photograph them on the spur of the moment or in posed positions and end up with snap shots or stilted images.  Like any subject the photo-artist has to find the simplest and most natural way to capture the image.  This is most often accomplished by having patience and waiting for that perfect moment when their attention is not focused on the photographer.  From there we can work with the subject to capture moments, personalities and beauty.

The photographer has cropped this image very nicely, placing the subject off center and removing unnecessary details, leaving only the child’s face and the flower background.  The child appears to be relaxed, about to say something.  The picture was shot at mid day and the photographer used a fill flash to lighten up the shadows and reduce the contrast.  The flash has left us with nice catch lights in her eyes.

I would like the photographer to consider a couple items.  The fill flash has left the child’s face a little over exposed and pasty looking.  If the flash were set about a half stop lower she would have better skin tones.  The selected background works very well, it is simple, colorful and appropriate for the subject.  However there is a large area of soil exposed that could be covered with flowers using a little cloning.  This would fill in that area and give us a consistent background.

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For the past eighty years many consumer products have been designed by professional industrial designers.  An industrial designer’s job is to show the manufacturer how to make their product more appealing to the consumer.  Generally these talented artists keep pushing the engineering department to constantly improve the products we used every day, it’s a battle between left and right brains.   It is said if it were up to the industrial designer there would be picture windows on airplanes and if it were up to the structural engineer there would be no windows at all.

There are many ways to interpret a consumer product subject such as an automobile; one is viewing it through the spectrum of simplicity and pure graphics, capturing the designer’s intent.  This photographer has distilled this subject down to color and line much as an industrial designer would.   He has picked out one simple styling feature and created a composition that captures the essences of the design.  The balance between red and white is very important in this image.  The proportions remind me of a national flag or banner. 

The photo-artist has pulled off something that is generally not an acceptable graphic element.  The black line terminates right at the lower corner.  I think this works because the natural flow of the layout is in that direction and the upper left hand corner is left open.  There is one very small thing I would like to suggest to the photographer.  Under the edge of the chrome there appears to be a flaw in the paint, this could just be a reflection, but a view may see it as a defect, particularly when the subject is magnified this much.  This could be cloned out with two clicks.  

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There are some composition rules that you can’t explain that just work and the rule of odd numbers is one of them.  For some reasons when photographing subjects three makes a better composition then two and five makes a more pleasing arrangement than four or six.  This rule too may be broken but more often than not we are attracted to odd numbered layouts.

This photographer met these monks in Yosemite and asked them to pose for him.  They agreed and he set them up so that the cross light illuminated their faces and gave texture to their saffron robes.  It also brought out the quality of the rock surface he used as a back drop.  The fabric and colors in this image are outstanding.  The photo-artist arranged the subjects very nicely so that they are all at different levels.  One common mistake in group photographs is having all the heads at the same level.  This makes for a boring composition, but this photographer avoided that error, also having some standing and some sitting makes for a relaxed and natural pose.

There are one or two suggestions I would like to make.  Down in the lower left hand corner there is a small fragment of rock protruding into the frame.  It is a little thing but it does distract from the smooth graph of the border and is one distraction that can be eliminated.  The monk on the left has some of the most interesting texture in his fabric but his also looks thence with his hands at this side and the expression on his face.  He is separate from the other subject and could be cropped out to give us a composition of five.

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Some subjects beg to be converted to sepia black and white; ghost towns, cowboys, old cars, etc.  Anything we think of as vintage is fair game, however when you see old tintypes and very old prints you soon realize they have a certain quality that is very difficult to duplicate.  Perhaps it was the latitude of the film or the type of developing chemicals used, but it is almost impassable to modify a modern image to look like it was taken a hundred years ago even though the subject could have existed at the time.

The windmill photographed here has been converted with the use of computer filters.  The photo-artist has taken on the difficult task of making the print look antique.  The composition has focused on the subject so that it takes up almost all of the image area.   There is interesting texture in the water and plants along the bank of the pond which has been enhanced by the filters used.  The lighting is mid day but with this conversion that does not detract from the photograph, if anything by converting from color to black and white the subject has been enhanced.

The photographer may wish to consider allowing more space in front of this subject if possible.  This would show us more of the surrounding environment and take the subject off the center line of the composition.  When I first saw this photograph I thought the horizon line was tilted but after checking and measuring I think the illusion is caused by the hexagonal shape of the building and the curve of the shore line.

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Telling a story through photography is the fourth dimension of the art.  An element that helps takes a photo from a ‘record shot’ to a photograph.  Sometimes the story is obvious, sometimes obscure and sometimes it is a universal story.  Never assume that the viewer will interpret the image the same way as the photographer thinks the story is told.  The person that took the image was there and knows what was going on before and after that moment in time, the photographers eyes are clouded by the facts.  The viewer comes with their own experiences and emotions.  So unless the tail being told is universal the reading will differ from reader to reader.

The story in this image can be seen a number of different ways.  Is the man approaching a stranger?  The dog appears to be taking a defensive stand.  Perhaps he is a friend or their father; he appears to be walking confidently toward the young surfboarders.  Why are the boys facing the approaching walker? There is a story but there may be many interpretations.  That’s not a bad thing, just the type of image it is.

The silhouettes are well done in that they attract the observer’s attention and can be easily identified.  The composition consists of three surface textures; the water, the wet sand and the dry sand.  The low light plays off each of these textures making the edge of the wet and dry sand a leading line through the composition.

There are a couple suggestions the photographer may want to think about.  There appears to be a define green color cast to the image as presented.  To reduce green you apply a little of its complementary color, magenta.  Then I would also add a little blue to help balance the yellow, this will result in more of the golden hue.  The other comment has to do with the empty beach behind the surfboarders.  The photo-artist may wish to have this negative space for their composition and story, which is their call.  But it might be tried cropped down a little so that a portion of both of the shadows on the sand are cropped.

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Formal group photographs present the problem of getting all the subjects to look their best at exactly the same time.  The larger the group the more chances someone will have their eyes closed or exhibited an unappealing posture.  So when shooting three or more people in a formal setting I would suggest that you take multiple exposures because you won’t see the problems until the image is blown up.

This group of three men is arranged in a very imaginative way.  One of the foreground subjects overlaps the man at the far wall giving them a physical connection even though there is a separation by depth.  By placing one of the subjects at the distant wall it not only gives depth to the composition but a bit story to the photograph.  The fellow on the left is separate and alone looking off in a different direction from the other two men.  The use of the gold background behind the primary subject draws our attention to him.

There are a couple of observations I would like to make.  The two subjects on the right, while in posed positions look comfortable and relaxed while the person on the left comes across as uncomfortable and a little out of place in the way he is standing with his hands at his side.  The photographer was standing below the subjects and this caused the columns, particularly the one on the right, to keystone and appears to be leaning into the scene.  One final thing I would like to make the photographer aware of.  The image appears to be out of focus.  This could be a softening filter but it would be more acceptable if the image were sharper.

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Exploring a technique is an important tool in learning photography or any other form of art.  Like painters we go through our periods of discovery and innovation.  However we should never get so satisfied that we stop exploring other areas of interest and discovery.  This will allow us to continue to grow.

This photographer is taking the water drop to new plateaus of technique.  The photograph displayed here has added an element of humor and fascination by showing a portion of the model’s profile in the composition while allowing us to see her face inverted in a number of the droplets.  These miniature looking glass spheres display multiple universes inhabited by the subject.

Graphically the stream of drops is situated off center; bringing our attention to the right side of the composition.  The human eye which would normally be our focal point is so out of focus that it is not until we study the reflections that we become fully aware of its significance.  This is an excellent example of what can be accomplished when a photo-artist develops a technique.

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When photographing people in a studio there are four basic lights that can be used to illuminate; main, fill, kick and background.  The main light, as the name indicates, is used to do the general lighting of the subject.  The fill light(s) is either a lower power setting or set back further from the subject and they fill in the shadows (this can also be done with a reflector).  Kick lights, or sometimes called hair lights are used to separate the subject from the background and are normally placed behind the individual.  And finally the background light adds texture to the backdrop.

The young lady being photographed here is illuminated by only two light sources, the main light and fill.  It looks to me as if a fill card was used to fill in the shadows.  The subject is posed looking up and away from the camera; this gives her a dreamy faraway look.  Shooting at a low angle adds a strong determined feeling to the pose.

I particularly like the repeating patter of dots we see in hear dress, beads and ear rings.  Her makeup is impeccable and gives her a look of casual sophistication.  The clear bright color in her eyes with the sharp highlights gives sparkle to this portrait.

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Man in nature can give interesting contrasts by using the juxtaposing of the natural world with manufactured elements.  This can be done by showing man dominating nature or the insignificance of man in the larger scheme of things.  This theme has been used in photography for the past two hundred years.

The photograph shown here has many manmade elements; the wire fence, orange grove, power lines, superimposed over the Topa Topa Mountain near Ojai California.  The cloudy sky takes up about half of the composition.  The layering of shades of green is interesting.

There may need to be some work done with the contrast and color saturation.  This would give the image a richer feeling.  Along the left hand edge there is a black line that could be removed.  I do not feel the fence is a particularly strong element in this composition however I would not crop it totally out of the image.  But the gray ground under the trees could be removed.  This would simplify the layout and take the viewer deeper into the scene.

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WOW!

There is nothing more to say.

This photo-artist is truly a magician with Photoshop and a camera.

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If you are going to photograph people you need a tool that you can’t purchase and no one can teach you.  You must to be able to relate to people.  They need to feel comfortable around you and your camera.  To get people to relax and just be their selves is an essential talent few have that shoot candied and posed portraits. 

This portrait of the man and his pet show the art of relating to the subject and the subject relating to the camera.  This man is showing off but at the same time is as relaxed and natural as can be expected.  And his snake is just as comfortable with the camera as the man.

You will note that the photographer did not try to show anymore of the subject or the surrounding environment than necessaries.   The composition consists of only the necessary elements.  The fact that the reptile is covering one of the person’s eyes adds humer to the scene while the man’s Mona Lisa smile adds to the sly wit.  It is interesting that his iris is the same tint as his shirt and cap; the man’s iris that is.

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The nice thing about digital cameras is that the pixels are cheap.  You can play and play and play and all you will do is run down the batteries.  If you have a subject you want to work with you can shoot it a hundred times a hundred different ways and not spend one cent more for the resulting images.  The only thing limiting the number of photos you take is your imagination.

This stop action photograph is amazing.  The water droplets captured in midair and flowing from the crater in the top of the apple are fascinating.  The inverted images of the environment seen in the suspended drops shows a viewer greater than is visible in the frame and you will note that these small images are sharper then you would anticipate.  The cant of the apple surface sloping away to the right adds additional interest to the composition.  I also like the dappled gray background selected.  It lets the midair drops standout without any competition for our attention.

The composition is well thought out.  You will not that the stream of drops is not on the center ling of the illustration but at about one fourth distance from the right hand frame.  The lighting is also interesting with most of the illumination falling on the upper portion of the apple and leaving the pool of water at about a stop and a half under exposed. 

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I want to encourage every amateur photographer to experiment and try new techniques.  You have nothing to lose and you may just learn something, even from your mistakes, and once in a while you will get an image you are proud of.  Don’t just stick with what you already know try something different.

This long exposure image was taken after sunset at a time that appeared to have little or no light in the sky.  The photographer tried an experiment and came up with these interesting colors and cloud patterns in the sky.  You will note the visible small squares in the upper left hand corner.  These are what are called noise in digital camera; this is roughly comparable to grain in film.  A digital camera builds up heat when opened for long periods of time and thus noise is a result in the image.  There is computer software that will correct for this condition.  The photographer has created an interesting experiment.

The image could use a stronger subject.  The silhouette does not have a subject of much interest and the graphics are not particularly strong.  I do like the cloud formation on the right and the light cast on the distant hill.  I would suggest to the photo-artist that they continue working with long exposures and learn as much as you can by solving the technical issues and finding strong subjects to work with.

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Why do some people like abstracts and others do not?  The more left brain you are, the more literal, and down to earth you are the more likely you may not care for images you can’t identify.  However the right brain person may be used to taking things at first impressions and willing to not worry about details but use their own feelings and emotions to react to an illustration.  Neither person is right nor wrong; they just have different expectations of art.  But if you are willing to accept art that is impressionist you open up a much broader spectrum of enjoyment.

The bold splash of colors in this image says  garden to me without my being able to recognize any particular flower.  Just the combination of colors says spring time to me.  I particularly like the strong reds and yellows against the pastel pinks and blues, it gives this illustration depth and a three dimensional feel.  The primary colors are in the lower left utilizing the standard composition of two thirds - one third which gives the photograph balance against the much larger pastel area. 

This is an image that could be interpreted in a number of different ways which is why I like it.  This is more than color randomly splashed on a canvas.  It also has composition and depth.  I don’t know what possessed this photo-artist to convert the original straight shot to this explosion of color but I am glad they did. 

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The computer has given us a whole new range of techniques that either was not available in the darkroom or was extremely difficult to accomplish manually.  Now most people can clone, color enhance, filter and convert their photography using the software available.  This comes with its own set of problems and issues but it can make it more fun than ever to be creative.

This photo was taken for a military group by a photographer working with the public relations department.  I have not counted the number of people in this shot but it must be over a couple hundred.  Taking the shot was not the hard part; the person herding the cats is the one I admire.  As you can see the group was arranged so that the airport control tower with the flag was in the center of the image at the head of the ribbon.  This is an important element to get the message across.  The conversion of part of the layout too black and white leaves only the important elements, the yellow ribbon and flag, in color and works quite well for this PR photo.

I would like to make a recommendation to the photo-artist.  The important thing in the concept of this composition is the color standing out from the black and white background.  The hues in this illustration appear to be a little muddy and therefore aren’t as prominent as you may wish.  By using the layers pallet in Photoshop and adjusting the contrast and saturation you can make the colors pop and have a more stunning image.  Go to the web site ‘Dazzling Photography’ at http://www.dazzlingphotography.com/ to get some ideas on how this can be done.

The photo-artist has also supplied us with a computer adaptation if this image, see below.

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The bristlecone pine is known to live up to nearly 5,000 years.  There are three species of bristlecone pine spread over six states in the American southwest.  They live at the very top of the tree line in areas with low temperatures in dry soil.  Their growing seasons are quite short.  The wood is one of the hardest making it almost impervious to insects and other pests.  The Bristlecone is sometimes called the Methuselah tree of obvious reasons.

When I first saw this shot I was impressed with the clarity and crispness of the air.  The colors are bright and full with a nearly perfect tonal range from the whitest whites to deep black.   The photographer has thrown the subject off to the right asking us to look over the crest and at the landscape beyond.  I like the placement of the clear blue sky behind the tree thus keeping our attention on the subject.  You can see from the landscape this species does grow in a dry, cold environment at the top of the tree line.

This is an interesting image that could be used for commercial purposes such as a calendar or book on the area.  With this layout it could be cropped a number of ways to fit different formats.  But there may be some printing problems with the bright rocks in the foreground.

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When photographing formal portraits in bright sunlight the photographer needs to watch the shadows particularly in and around the face.  The human eye can compensate for these high contrast areas but the camera has much less latitude.  One way to see what you can expect in the final image is to squint with your eyes as tight as you can and still see the subject.  This will reduce the light entering the eye and you will see the dark tones as the camera see them.

These two models are lovely to look at; fresh, alive and relating to the photographer.  The composition is nice with their heads tilted to the right. You can tell it is a windy day by the movement of their hair, also to the right.  The background selected adds to this feeling of movement and has and interesting canvas texture.

I would like to make a few observations the photo-artist may wish to consider.  It appears that the photographer elected to replace the original background with a computer generated pattern.  I like the pattern but there are two areas that could be modified.  When making selections for replacement we need to be careful that we get an edge that appears natural.  In this illustration I can detect a few edge lines that appear to be out of place.  The second thing about the background is how to place the subjects against the hues of the pattern.  In this case the darkest background area is behind the models black hair and does not give a clear separation.

The final observation is the dark shadows on the face of the woman in blue.  The person in white has good lighting but the other model is in deep shadow.

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Most images are made up of lines.  When you look at an image try to imagine how you would draw the subject with the fewest lines to capture the essence of the graphic elements.  This will give you some idea about what is important in the composition regardless of the subject matter.

The landscape in this photograph consists of three main elements; the island (foreground), the sloping hill side (middle ground) and the snow capped mountain (distance).  These make up the distinct graphics of this composition.  The cloud bank in the distance blends into the white of the mountain so I see is as only a secondary feature.  The photographer has elected to place the peak of the mountain on the center line of the composition.  Often it is not a good idea to make a layout so symmetrical but in this case it works, I think partly because of the weight given to the sloping hill which adds some tension to the right side.

The lighting is nice early morning light giving sharp texture to the island and yet not so bright as to lose detail in the distant shadows.  I would like to make one observation and suggestion.  The viewer expects to see nature in its pristine beauty yet there is a yellow cast to the white of the snow.  This can be improved by adding a little of the complementary color to the photograph, in this case blue.

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You don’t have to believe in psychics and UFOs, or take LSD to see hidden worlds.  They can be found all around us though the camera lens.  Our limited human sensibilities do not allow us to comprehend many everyday occurrences.  But with the camera we can capture a micro second or lengthen an hour to fill the clock.  All it takes is a little knowledge and a lot of imagination.

There is nothing like high speed photography to give us wonder, nothing like high speed images to let us see things we were never aware of before.  This remarkable illustration of a drop of liquid frozen in time and space tells us we have much to learn.  The timing and composition of this photograph are remarkable.  This macro shot taken at ultra high speed was able to capture the subject in perfect focus and composition.

The subject is located in the one third - two thirds sweet spot, with lighting that adds amber color to the surface.  The liquid surface is like undulating clear plastic with a suspended world levitated above it which reflects the environment around it through this transposed prism.  I like the use of the cropped edge of the rippled surface on the left side of the frame; this adds tension to the composition.

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Some subjects are difficult to photograph not because they are hard to capture with our cameras but because they have been photographed so often that everyone believes they have seen or taken the same image, they have become cliches.  Show me an interesting photograph of a ground squirrel and I will show you a great photographer.

Rainbows fall into this often photographed catagory of images.  However this composition stands out from most rainbow photos.  It has context, good lighting and decent graphics.  It is basically a landscape photograph with a rainbow for interest.  I feel the ark of the rocks opposing the curve of the colored bands adds an interesting graphic element. 

There are a couple of things the photographer may wish to consider.  This being a landscape the photo-artist could have included a little more foreground at along the bottom of the frame, this would add depth.  By cropping the intersection of the rainbow with the opposing curve of the rocks and the waterfall would not be in the exact center of the picture.  Also you might consider a little due and color enhancement on the computer to make the rainbow colors pop.

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Afterglow refers to that time of day that lasts for about fifteen minutes after sunset when the light source has dropped behind the horizon, the time of quiet light.  The light from the sun continues to illuminate the atmosphere, sometimes with spectacular results depending on the amount of moisture and particulates in the air. 

The instance of afterglow shown here is an excellent example, it shows how color and can be combined with shadow to give a sticking image.  The reflection of the sky in the water has amplified the quality of color.  Our subject, the swan, being white has enough detail to place it above the silhouette register.  The concentric circles in the water add texture to the surface of the lake and frame the subject.

There is a suggestion I would like to make to the photo-artist.  In the water in front of the swan is some debris that could be cloned out on the computer.  The current proportions are nice but a little cropping may be considered.  This will concentrate the amount of color in the sky, reduce the black area to the left and bring the viewers attention in closer to the subject. 

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Good subjects don’t have to have the grandeur of El Capitan or the glamour of a professional models portrait.  They are often the little things all around us, the things the non photographer sees but never sees, subjects created by happenstance of light, color and pattern.  For those that are aware of the images all around us are those people that have the eye. 

This simple yet dramatic composition if something we have all seen and yet never thought of photographing, a humble subject that is there for the taking.  The strong cross light has added drama and form to the patterns of draped fabric and texture to the stucco wall in the background.  The placement of the cloths to the right is nicely balanced by the negative space to the left.  The photo-artist has taken the image to its bear essence.

There is a muter green cast to the image that the photographer may wish to eliminate.  The off color is so pronounce that it may be intentional but it could be interpreted as a poor print.  It is the photo-artists call if correction is required.

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The way you photograph a portrait can affect the way we intemperate the personality of the person being portrayed.  As an example have you ever noticed how photographs of politicians giving speeches are often take from a low angle as if the photographer is looking up at the subject?  The reason is that this is intended to convey power and strength.

The semi-formal portrait of this model is a good example of this principle.  The low angle has given her a personality of anything but shy or demur.  She is portrayed as a powerful and strong woman.  This would make a good photograph of a business executive, a decision maker.  The lighting is decent for this type of personality; strong without any softness.

There are a couple of things I might recommend.  The focus in on the eye which is good but it falls off every rapidly in both directions.  Perhaps a little more depth of field would be desirable.  You can see what appears to be her hand behind her head.  It is difficult to be sure because of the focus, it looks a little out of place.

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There are some natural events that beg to be photographed; the beautiful sunset, a brilliant rainbow or storm clouds with lightning.  But too often we only see the stunning event and forget that it needs something to play off of.  An example was a photograph I was asked to critique at a photo club a number of years ago.  The week before there had been one of the best sunset color displays in the area that I had ever seen.  A photographer brought in an image of this same sunset and the sky was great, but he had just stepped outside his front door to tank the photograph and had for a foreground telephone poles and power lines, TV antennas, the a few house roofs.  Was it a wonderful sky, yes, was it a wonderful photograph, no. For a stunning sky you need an interesting foreground.

The sunset offered here has that interesting foreground with a nice quiet harbor scene reflecting the hews of the illuminated sky.  The graduated tones in the sky are interesting but not stunning.  I like the way the boats are spaced out allowing us to see the gold reflected in the quiet water.  The low horizon permits the masts to protrude into the sky so we can see the detail of the cables.

There is one small item that does give me pause.  The bird in the upper left hand corner does appear to be a little distracting and about to fly out of the frame.

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