March 2009 - Admin's choice - Image of the month

[Marko]

Hi members,

This is a relatively new suggestion from a thread by Mad Aussie
where the Admin (me) chooses one excellent photo each month from the Show forum, the critique forum and the assignment forum to talk about and suggest why it is good as a learning tool.

I have spent several hours going through every single thread from March 2009 from the Show forums, the assignment forums and the critique forum....and even though it was also chosen by Kentw as one of the five images members are currently voting on...

This month the winner is from thierrylaurent from this thread Equinox.

This image won it for me due to several important factors. Firstly this image has impact! You just look at the image and go wow! It has an amazing selection of tones from pure black to pure white. The shot has very interesting elements from foreground reflections to background hills and clouds. The image also suggests a story of calmness and being pensive. The sky is nice and dramatic as well. If I have any small nits, I'd have loved to see the rider just a wee bit less centered. There also seems to be a bit of noise in the sky. Despite this, of the hundreds of images I looked through this month, this one was my favourite.

Although normally this is an honourary award, for this month fellow member Michaelaw has graciously given me some software to offer as a prize so a double congrats to thierrylaurent for winning a copy of Photo Album 7 by Corel.

Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That's cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

I think I will add 2 or three honourable mentions as there were also another bunch of shots that came soooo close. I'll likely post them in the blog but add a link to them in this thread.

Congrats again thierrylaurent for creating this beautiful image.