[matthew]

I'm happy - I won my first, well, anything tonight. A photo of mine took a ribbon (top 15%) in the Novice class of the "Our City" clinic in my newfound photo club, the Toronto Guild for Photographic Art.



A Sense of Place

I'm now 'on the map', if you'll excuse the pun...

[Petographer]

Great stuff Matt. Congrats.

[Irma]

Congratulations Matt.

Your picture is beautiful!!

[EnglishBob]

Congratulations Matt, nice concept too.

[shuttertalk]

Beautiful photo matthew... love the concept - very classy work.

[matthew]

Thanks very much. I'm still looking at my bright yellow ribbon. (Having congratulations from four countries, and three continents, is also quite something.)

The next clinic has a theme of "Nature". I'm not planning on winning anything there.

updated: I've just received a copy of the judges comments for this photo.

Scores: 6, 8, 9 = total 23 (RIBBON)
Comments: Very creative & original, strong leading lines, great detail, nicely placed. Suggestion - mask the map out of the bottom half & keep it only in the sky.

One judge didn't like the map competing with the rail lines, which I understand. That's actually how the photo looked when I finished it the first time for my blog.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Great Image Matthew!

And congrats!!

I actually looked at your image yesteray, and thought exactly the smae thing they commented about the map, didnt want to critique it though lol.

Other then that its great!!

/P.L

[matthew]

Thanks, I usually post in the critique section, so this is a rare venture into the Showcase for me.

I thought that the original (more solid foreground) lacked overall coherence, and that the rail lines in the foreground didn't add much to the shot of the city. (The foreground actually is showing the map very slightly, but it just adds clutter.) I'm thinking now that I should have gone half-way, with a narrow strip of the near foreground showing the map very strongly, almost framing the shot, but fading quickly to a very subtle hint of the grid.

Maybe next time.

[shuttertalk]

Since you're on the topic - maybe a suggestion:

Perhaps you could have the map bit only showing in the sky section - so have the buildings and tracks in the foreground totally solid and have the map sorta "in the background" so to speak.

But... who am I to correct a ribbon winning photo... Congrats again!

[Don Schaeffer]

Congratulations. A real honor.

[slejhamer]

Best dim-sum I ever had was in Toronto.

Nice image!