The rules are simple, Each month or so (could be more or less depending on traffic and interest) the clubs pick one or two images for critique and post them here. Members (and visitors) can critique under each image. Please include Given Name and Surname Initial with critiques.

1. images shouldn't be more than 500x500
2. Include your name and image title and posting date
3. Wetpaint administrators have veto authority over images and, out of courtesy, will include statements as to why any forced changes are made
4. images should be updated/changed once per month or so. This would be by simply removing older images

When adding an image, it's a good idea to first add your title and identification. Add the image just above that. Sometimes, it's difficult to see the space around an image with which to make further edits.

Worcestershire Camera Club Image(s)

Seven Hills Camera Club Image(s)

'Olive Grove' by Clive Haynes - posted February 2007 This picture with its dancing olive tree forms suggests to me the eternal spirit of youth that lies within us all. These trees may be hundreds of years old, yetwithin, heart and zest remain young. CH. Please add comments here: Comments from Michelle Fontaine I agree with Casey, love the painterly effect and the visual leading lines. Clive, do you recall how you got these effects? A Photoshop filter perhaps? Your woods remind me of scrub pine on Cape Cod which seem almost gothic at night. Comments from Casey Danek I really like this photo. I like its painterly feel, I like the composition, the feeling of strength in the first tree with its long branch taking the eye into the rest of the image. Photographers sometimes talk about how the eye is lead around an image and this is certainly happening - to me - in this one. The return trip is my eye's flow from the first tree to the second, then down it's trunk to the shadows and then back to the original. Wow. Nice! Contentment by Malcolm Haynes - posted February 2007 Please add comments here. Comment from Michelle Fontaine The smiles on both baby and momma pig are priceless! The eye is drawn right to the baby's snout and ears and then momma's face yet the rest of the pictured is nicely subdued. Really nice! Malcolm – Contentment. The title certainly sums up this picture. The piglet looks secure and cosy alongside mum. Mum doses and appears entirely satisfied in a way the only pigs achieve . Delightful. Clive. Untitled by Peter Ager - posted February 2007 Please add comments here. Comments from Michelle Fontaine Thankfully, we live in a pretty rural part of Massachusetts and we can see things like this without venturing out too far. Wonderful historical pieces. It's our job, as photographers, to record these moments and you did a great job of it. I think I might have put a little more distance in the front of the tractor and a bit less in the back. Other than that, love it! Comment from Clive I think the title is something like 'Out to Pasture' - which indeed this ancient piece of farm machinery is! Now in retirement, the the 'old beast' can rest amongst the fields without the necessity to do any work. There must have also been some great close-up texture shots in amongst the various elements of this machine. Clive. 'Prague Courtyard' by Gill Haynes (One of the set of images sent for the 'exchange' between 7HCC and WCC - Note: The image is 'straight' - that is to say the sunlight within the scene is entirely that whch was naturally occuring - the cut-off shadow area being the result of the high buildings adjacent). Please add comments below..... Comment by Casey Danek - thanks for the explanation about the shadows. Even though you clarify that it's a high adjacent building causing the type of shadow, it still doesn't register completely with me. There are so many disconnects. Why are some of the shadows so sharp and other not? What is it about the makeup of the ground that causes this? It's this mystery that make the image more interesting. Further info from Clive..... Hi Casey, do you know, before you mentioned it, the differential between the contrast of the shadow areas wasn't something I had considered. This may be because of two reasons. The first being that the picture was made as a print and the contrast looks just fine - so we're sort of used to seeing it that way. The other reason is that, unlike the viewer, Gill and I have the advantage of knowing that this was 'as seen', so we've been thinking about the reason for the difference in tone. The very high contrast shadow section of the tree is because of the highly-reflective cobblestone-style paving really punching back the sunlight (which was virtually straight into the camera), whilst the foreground shadows upon the paving slabs have been softened - filled-in if you like, by thesunlight reflecting back from the light coloured wall of our high vantage point. I hope this helps. 'Evaluation' by Clive Haynes Please add comments below ..... Comment by Casey Danek - I absolutely love this photograph. Its composition is such that all the elements keep me going back to the eye yet, in some disinterested way, the horse appears to be looking away at something else. Thus, I'm forced to not make a connection with the animal. This releases me from animal for a brief moment; I'm swept away by the lateral hair to the row of hairs running down the centerline of the horses head. Then I'm drawn back into the eye to see if, now, we can connect. Very powerful.

'Dam Reflection" by Michelle Fontaine - posted February 25, 2008 Comment from Michelle Fontaine This image was made in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, which is a historic mill city about 1 hour from Worcester, MA. The dam is officially named Woonsocket Falls and reflects a former textile mill and the rust of the dam itself. I feel it provides a picture of an important historical time in many New England towns. Please add comments here: Comments from Clive Haynes: I really like this picture. It has great visual impact and a sensation of 'being there' - the wateriness is almost palpable! The old gaunt mill stands as silent whitness to the passage of time which has seen its traditions and endeavours reduced to zero. The swiftly-flowing water, therefore, acts as a striking visual metaphor, representing the inexorable passage and sweep of time, sweeping forever on whilst allowing us a brief moment to reflect. _________________________________________________________ Photo by Casey Danek - posted Dec 2007 Casey D. - Took this last year on an outing with the Worcester Photography Center. The evening street lights made magic in the windows. A bit of Photoshop magic rounded things out. On a sad note, the town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts suffered a great loss on July 21st with the fire at the mill where this photograph was taken. The entire complexhad been experiencing a resurgence as 65 or so vendors had opened studios and shops there. Two were photography related operations. The mill was a complete loss. Comment from Michelle Fontaine I was with Casey when he found this image and saw how excited he was when we went by this small waiting room in the mill. The lighting was almost gone and he captured the scene beautifully. I also had the opportunity to photography the mill burning. A show of this can be seen on www.mfontainephotography.com. It was a sad morning. - Michelle Comment from Clive Haynes: Here a seat, looks 'Juno-like'in two directions - in the one direction toward life and hope beyond the frame, in the other direction toward a blank and sterile wall, where light cast by 'freedom' and the outside world only reaches the surface asdiffuse and uncertain glow. Yet by by rotating 90 degrees, an observer on the seat, has the opportunity of not only appreciating radiance from another window but the tantalising opportunity of escape through an aperture. In this way, the picture becomes a visual metaphor forthe urgent need to seek answers by considering options other than those presented by conventions that polarise opinions with limited options. In short, thinking for oneself 'outside the box'. I enjoy the vibrancy of colour and the strong contrast presented by the warmth of the seat and the blue glow beyond the window. A successful picture with an essential enigma -the importance of leaving us wanting to know more. Comment from Richard Wood I like the simplicity of this picture with its geometrical structure and the dark sombre colours. It reminds me of the sparse, cold, lonely, waiting room that existed at my local train station in the late fifties when I first started work. Sitting there at six thirty in the morning as a young lad the dark window would have raised the question " will the train ever arrive?" but the light emanating from the end window gave hope that. yes. it would.

'Watching' by Richard Wood

Please add comments below.......