[IanHoughton]

Was out in the garden today looking for inspiration for a club competition tomorrow (theme: "In the Garden"), weather was lousy (raining / cloudy) these were some of the shots today. Critique welcome

[Markulous]

1: Nice detail and colour tho' I'd have preferred a bit more angle there (closer to a corner to corner)
2: Grumpy looks suitably grumpy!
3: Detail works well - would've been good to get the bit at the front fully in focus, but no real big deal

[Dabhand16]

I like #1, but it does not say garden to me. I also agree with mark's comment re not enough angle. #2 is too much like Dave for comfort. So that leaves #3. It is a bit soft at the front, but of the three, this is the one I'd go with.

Good luck.

[Angela]

Am loving the gnomes!! It certainly says garden and if you think the judges have a sense of humour I'd go with that one!

[fionaB]

i absoluteyl adore the gnomes! the doF is terrific with just the right amount of blur IMO anyway! the top one while it is a lveoly clear image hold not much interest for me, similarly with the bottom one. The humour in the gnome shot just makes it!

Fi

oops just realised they are supposed to be dwarfs???

[Rob Barron]

I think that would be dwarves Fiona <tut tut>

Ok, I'm off to find a whole to hide away from fiona in!

Maybe in ian's garden? Certainly some fun shots to be had there. I agree with Fiona that the 3 dwarves is the best (though I thought there were seven but maybe this is the abridged version <g>) as the DoF works really well. I think I would brighten it up a bit to give it more impact but great fun.

The first one is ok but the sharpest drops are over on the left and if we can't have them all pin sharp (water droplets only usually work when they are really crisp) then I'd prefer for the drops down the centre grain to be sharpest. It could be the heavy compression that is doing that though, it is quite large and full of detail all over it but you have compressed it down to just 91kbs and I think that has softened the image and thus the impact.

I love the last one despite the softness at the front but would prefer to see it with a full dynamic range so that the colours are stronger and the contrast would create greater impact, IMHO.

Good work here Ian and good on you for getting out there in the rain and taking them

Cheers,
Rob

[skipper954]

Hey Ian

If the theme is "In the Garden", then 1 and 3 don't really come across to me.

However, the gnomes, dwarfs, whatever, are terrific. I really like the dof, and the shovel!

It has humor, sensitivity and from a technical standpoint is, as you would say, spot on.

skip

[IanHoughton]

Shame I missed the deadline to enter them then

The deadline was while I was away in Turkey, and the slideshow for last night had already been completed. Never mind, you win some, you lose lots !!!

Thanks for your comments everyone much appreciated, I think the dwarfs would have done quite well judging by last nights entries, 62 images in total with about 40 odd flower shots. Nobody really tried to think "outside the box". At least I have some more images for my "stock".

The other dwarfs are busy with Snow White in the playhouse