Bluejake

I love the cat photo. It's a tough one, because it's under a cloudless, sunny sky, but the composition works great. The Coney Island setting is nice, but the cat makes it a different take on a typical Wonder Wheel scene.

The tree doesn't do as much for me. Again, an uninteresting sky, an ugly building at the left. And the lone figure on the boardwalk is just too tiny -- I didn't even notice her on the first viewings.

But what do I know?

i'm with you on those two, joe. i really liked the cat, and if the fence hadn't been there and i had a wider lens, i could have done something really cool. like a fish-eye shot right in front of the cat, with a split level ND filter to darken the back-lit sky. as it is, though, i think the wonder wheel portion is a little too washed out.

as for the tree-- i liked the idea of doing a tree dead center in the frame, and really highlighting the empty branches. i think there's something to that, and i'm going to look for leafless trees in the park over the next few weekends. maybe in black and white. the rest of it doesn't work-- too blue in the sky, person at the bottom not big enough.

I gotta say, living in WB, feral cats are everywhere. I think I wish the cat was bigger. I'm not sure the cat can make a subject that is compelling enough to hold down all that space it's in. I think some people find cats really interesting.

I like the tree. I like a lot of those really spare shots. I think it is such a complex shape and its interesting against that weird building. I also like the range of color of the sky.

I like the tree too. The foreground is a little dark, and personally I would give the tree a little room, but I think that idea is worth further investigation. I'm a fan of trees in general, I think it is possible to create an infinite variety of visual patterns with them as well as using them more symbolically.