I received some images from Nurit and Israel Ettner of Tel-Aviv, Israel for the guest pages on my Nature Gallery site. Among them was this image taken by their 13 year old son, Doron. I glanced and thought it was a good image and went on with my work. But every time I have looked at it, I like it more and more. It really grew on me and I am curious if others have the same view. Maybe its the sharp lines and contrasting colors etc., but there is something about it, even for a guy like me that is not into abstract.

I have the Ettner's written permission, including Doron's, to post it here for a critique. They understand that 13 year old Doron is now playing with the really big boys and girls.

-- Lee Snipes (Greyhawk_1@email.msn.com), October 07, 1998

Answers

It's pretty good. The orange and green background contrast nicely. The shape of the flower is interesting. Normally a centered composition is less appealing but since the petals go out to the edge there is a sense of partitioning space. Some problems IMO are the distractions caused by the cream coloured background object and the background leaf on the left side.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), October 07, 1998.

Though this is an attractive flower the presentation of the image seems very dark to me, also the background is fairly distracting. Not bad for a 13 year old, he got close, had a subject and probably exposed the image well.

-- Tait Stangl (taits@usa.net), October 07, 1998.

All in all, I think a very attractive piece. It would have been perfect without the slightly distracting whitish leafs in the background, and with perhaps a shallower DOF. I like the fact that he chose the perspective that he did. It's almost an abstract of a firebird or dragon... tell him we all liked it! and to keep shooting :-) tim

-- Tim Tregubov (timofei@cyberportal.net), October 08, 1998.

To Lee, Paul, Tait and Tim

Thanks a lot for your warm words and valuable remarks. We are learning along with Doron - who went to sleep with a big smile on his face, and plans for shots to be taken tomorrow :-)

-- Nurit Ettner (ettner@ibm.net), October 08, 1998.