Comments From Berwick

COMMENTS FROM BERWICK

Our favourite images were: 1st Wintry Walk, 2^nd Red Feathers and 3^rd Brown Bear, we also thought Galapagos, Jersey Cows and Rustic Detail deserved a special mention.

jg	1.1943	Interesting attempt at capturing the years of World War Two. It would have been better without the paper cups and the twenty first century camera.
iw	2. Bag Shop	Generally a confusing picture with the writing in the foreground being in conflict with the rest of the image.
my	3. Berwick Lighthouse	A good sky but it was felt that there was something lacking. The inclusion of a figure might have added something in the way of scale and “human interest.”
db	4. Brown Bear	We liked the letter box format. The habitat showed well. (Our envious natural history enthusiast suggested that the photographer should perhaps have got closer to the bear!)
am	5. Candle frames	Very clever, certainly different but confused.
du	6. Chair and Window	Interesting attempt, but it was generally felt that the chair lacked detail and needed more light.
aj	7. Chinese Garden, Sydney	Well handled - but was regarded as more of a “record” shot.
am	8. Downtown	Intriguing viewpoint. Certainly a lot to look at and the centre of interest appeared to be towards the lighter area at the right of the picture
sh	9. Emma	While a “nice” picture it did not really grab the attention. Image seemed soft.
dom	10. Fairground Magic	A rather bland picture which seemed static with no real action. It might have been improved by cropping and directing attention towards the right.
sh	11. Fudge	Movement is there, but it was felt that the picture would have been enhanced if one part of the image had appeared sharp.
dom	12. Fungi 2	The picture has a certain impact but the out of focus stick was a distraction. Members liked the left side of the picture and felt that cropping in that direction would have improved the image.
al	13. Galapagos	A good shot. Generally liked, our members were divided 50/50 as to whether the picture was best cropped or left as it is with the sea lion contrasting well with the open space.
aw	14. Gatepost	Interesting picture which could have been improved by removing the distracting white flowers. It was felt that the mid-tones were weak.
dam	15. Get off that phone box	A good action shot skilfully caught.

jog	16. Guitar hands	While the general composition was interesting, it was felt that the picture was marred by the lower hand being partially missing and the other hand being unsharp.
aj	17. Hamilton Island	Lovely light and a good travel shot. Might be improved by blocking out most of the right hand side.
kc	18 Hornsea Boats	A nice light on the boats bringing out punchy colours but generally it was felt that the picture did not work, our eyes tended to wander around.
dr	19 Iris	A striking image.
al	20 Jersey Cows	A photograph that works very well indeed and was generally liked. The roof lights distracted slightly and could have been digitally removed
mb	21 Levisham Station	Train clipped on the right. Burnt out highlights and not quite sharp. There is what looks like dirt in the sky area perhaps from a scanned slide.
jg	22 Lottie	The red collar was liked but more time and care could have been given to the digital manipulation of the image. Pixels need cleaning up around where the image was clipped. The dog also appeared to be too dark.
db	23 Migrant Hawker	Good picture and an appropriate format. Four circular spots could have come from dust specks on the sensor and could have been cleaned up in Photopaint or Photoshop.
am	24. Mirror Ball	Striking picture that could perhaps have been improved by straightening up the vertical on the right hand side or cropping. Another suggestion was cropping in closer to the ball and the portion of the building adjacent to it.
dam	25. Misty Morning	Although it caught the mood, it was felt that the picture was a little flat and needed more sparkle and could have been improved by cropping top and bottom.
sh	26. Night Fever	Certainly an interesting image with an initial impact. The title helped us work out what was going on. The gantry bars tended to distract and it would have been better if there had been just the ball and the dancers.
kc	27. North Berwick	A weak sky in a picture that could have been improved a little by cropping.
dam	28 People ride this!	Fair ground ride gives the feel of motion while retaining sharpness in the rivets on the massive supports. The dazzling spot lights on the ground distract a little from the rest of the picture and could have been toned down a bit.
al	29 Power and Passion	Powerful subjects and the mood is well captured. Maybe a loss of detail in the extreme shadow. (If this is your portrait night, can we borrow the models?)
my	30 Puffin	Very grainy and no real blacks, perhaps a later shot might have captured the missing leg?
Mv	31 Red feathers	A delightful and striking picture, a symphony in red. The lighting good, skin tone too.
iw	32 Reflections and ….refractions	Striking and so much to look into. It would make a mind blowing jig saw.
jq	33 Reflections	It was felt that an upright format would have improved this picture. Has too much been chopped off the bottom?
aw	34 Rocks Loch Morlich	Nice picture but generally flat. Sky is good otherwise tones muddy and lacking in punch. Cropping the rock might help.
Dom	35 Rustic Detail	Well liked, detail and lighting good.
dr	36 Swallowtail	Does not look right. The lighting of the subject and the background are at odds. Perhaps the butterfly has been cropped from a bigger picture and pasted in.
du	37 Train Border	Good subject with lots of detail on the signal gantries etc, but the fancy border edges definitely distract. A plain defined border would have sat better with this photograph.
db	38 Waterfall	The dark and indistinct bridge girder does not add anything to this picture. If the image lends to it things might be improved by panning down.
pb	39 Water lily	The bloom is too central. Cropping could improve this pleasant picture.
iw	40.Wintry Walk	Brilliant, lovely picture works extremely well. 99.9% out of 100%
dr	41 Young man from Somba tribe	A good attempt, but the difficulty of tackling lighting the face has not been overcome. The tribal marking on the cheeks show well but no clear chin line can be seen.

A suggestion for the next time we have an image exchange. Some of the images were very large files (130 mb) and they took a while to load on to the screen, perhaps we could have just medium sized jpegs. None of us had heard of Microsoft Office Image documents before, what are they?