It suits me fine, Helen; I tend to see the shadows first myself.
I might even be tempted to crop the top more severely to remove most of the Vee of sky between the rows of trees. It strengthens the appearance of the shadows by darkening the overall image.
But I'm not imagining it as a b&w image - not yet
Regards
Bill

Good use of negative space. The philosophy fits the art like a glove; although I do not myself think of the philosophy beforehand, the significant moment being far too fleeting for me!
I like the natural poses you achieve with your daughter.
Though I am far from a purist I would like to see a glint of light in your daughter's eyes, as in your two previous uploads. A reflector beside the camera might achieve that, I suppose.
Bill

On my part the immediate answer to your question is 'no'!
However, a couple of thoughts:

- f32 is not the ideal aperture to use if you want maximum image quality as distinct from maximum sharpness and depth of field due to the influence of diffraction. The majority of lenses are at their best from two stops smaller than wide open up to two stops wider than minimum, so for this lens between f5.6 and f16. For this subject f16 is best unless focus slips with depth.

- ISO 800 even with the excellent sensor of the D7000 is not going to give top image quality. As your subject was still and your camera on a tripod, base ISO (100) could have been used and the lens' VR switched off.

- RAW is better than jpeg for many reasons; in this case any software has more tones to work with and de-fringing (e.g. in Adobe Camera Raw) ditto.

BUT I actually like the image as it is

Regards
Bill

A most unusual image that has grown on me very quickly. The back lighting is startling and the exposure successful on the central rush where the texture of the head is clearly visible. The o/o/f highlights in the left background are superb; there is almost a sense of a human shape there. I am less sure about the centrality of the composition and wonder if experimenting with a crop off the right might be appropriate; the rush head on the right head is dark and distracts slightly and removing might increase the impact of the entire image.
But it's an enterprising and original idea that I love for its seeming randomness. Worth far more than the odd half-dozen votes - so here's my U.A. instead!
Bill

'Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,
Assise aupres du feu, devidant et filant,
Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous esmerveillant :
Ronsard me celebroit du temps que j'estois belle.'

Ronsard got there first!

Technically an excellent monochrome character study, the background well out of focus to avoid too much distraction. The deep black line could do with fading, though.
I feel that a less central placement of the subject would work even better.
Bill

A lovely portrait with excellent tones, a confident and comfortable pose, excellent catchlights and very good b&w conversion. Depth of field is nicely controlled.
Might I suggest that the composition could be improved by a less central placement? The background to the right of your head is effectively dead space while on the other side your elbow is truncated. A slight camera movement to include your elbow and reduce the space on the right would work well, I think.
Bill

This is delicious, Sue! The tones, the composition, the really lovely light, the almost tunnel effect of the reeds dipping their heads into the picture from right and left, all contribute to a strongly nostalgic atmosphere of the emerging warmth of spring.
A couple of little niggles, if you don't mind: there are a few tiny specks of lighter tone at the top right edge, and a lighter patch of intrusive reeds on the left, that could easily be removed or toned to match the rest. But that's me being very finicky, as you have produced almost the ideal photograph - I love it!
Regards
Bill

The gardens certainly invite tranquillity while the delightfully quirky old building adds character to the atmosphere. Your impressive b&w conversion has brought out the texture of the building's fabric especially well.

You have clipped the top of the building, which I think is crenellated; a slight zoom out, 1 or 2 mm, would have included it as a little more interest. An alternative suggestion would been to try portrait format and zoom out a touch more still. A third possibility would be to crop just to the left of the flower-bed / tip of the long shadow, thus removing the modern building and some of the 'dead ground' of featureless grass and concentrating the important elements even more.
This is not to denigrate the image, which after all works pretty well as-is!

Bill

I like the way you have gone for the composition here, Darryl, using both the spiked fence and its diagonal shadow with the black pillar about 1/3 across the frame. The shadow in particular is excellent and rather threatening. The bright orange makes it all leap off the screen; the black pillar and orange oblong by themselves would make a powerful statement.

I hope you won't mind a very minor niggle: The horizontal line top right (a wooden batten?) is angled and the resulting wedge very slightly disconcerting. Correcting it in software would remove part of the graffiti; but I think the strength of the image lies in the lies and shadows. Even without the adjustment the image is a strong one and very well seen.

Regards
Bill

Firstly, welcome to ephotozine, Euan!

The focus on the melodeon-player's face is fine; the body-language (melodeonist's lean and stamping foot) is indicative of the man getting into the swing of his music. Composition is generally good - more particularly, the pairing of the musician with the other photographer.
Camera exif shows that you were shooting with nearly two stops of overexposure, which visually is what stares at me from my monitor. Shutter speed priority has meant a wide aperture, too, though the selective exif hasn't shown me what it was; combined with the huge over-exposure, this has led to severe colour-fringing in out-of-focus areas especially the trees.
So - check the exposure compensation before you shoot - it's so easy to forget to zero it after a session, I do it regularly but I rarely use more than 2/3 stop compensation.
Jpegs are much harder to recover than raw images, so shoot in raw if you can.

I have attempted a modification for you: this sort of scene works well in monochrome, much favoured by street photographers even now; mono also conceals some of the colour fringing, or at least reduces its prominence. I have also cropped to 10 x 8 which was for many years 'standard' in the darkroom. I hope you think it works!

Best wishes
Bill

It's all about balance, Ann, and it balances reasonably well. There is more interest in the water to the right than to the left.
However, a 10:8 crop removing a little from the right would concentrate on the more interesting sky to which the rod is pointing, while leaving some space around the little boy.
A touching image in any format.
Regards
Bill

I rather wish I had this composition in my portfolio, Caitlin!

Unfortunately I can't really offer a way of overcoming the digital sky. Normally I would suggest masking it off and working on it separately; the selection round those branches would be fiendishly complicated, though. If you had shot in RAW, the Clarity slider on Adobe Camera Raw might help. Another possibility would be to put up with reduced saturation and vibrance.

As you can perhaps tell, I am not a hotshot in the digital darkroom. But I LOVE your composition!

Bill

I do like this very much: a simple and humorous concept well executed. The white-edged 'mount' and carefully-chosen script work especially well.
Your intro is also well-written. I rather envy you the table!
There is a little wedge at bottom right where the black fades that could easily be cloned out, a minor matter that could be attended to in order to achieve pearfection
Bill

Very strongly abstract, more so that your preceding photographs.
There is more than a hint of superimposition in your technique, perhaps a misted/rainy window and the human form; not distorted except by apparent defocusing.

Safe/threatening, dreamlike, surreal, vulnerable: all these adjectives you have used in your introductory comments; all come over more or less explicitly in all the images you have posted, though of course the balance varies. I do feel that the four images posted prior to this one reflect your intention more successfully: although the human form is blurred, defocused or otherwise disguised in these earlier pictures it is distinctly recognisable even if only by a single feature or shape. It helps the viewer no end to have a point of reference, however insignificant, and I'm not totally sure what it is in this instance.

I am however surprised to find that the subject somehow looks clearer in the thumbnail. That is not to say that you should produce your final display in that severely reduced format: I am looking at my monitor from about 50cm but I imagine a viewing distance in an exhibition to be at least 2 metres. Are you able to experiment with background/mounting colour? pale blue (as here) does not exactly do anyone's images any favours.

Most importantly - original work like yours makes me think: it achieves far more than the painting-by-numbers approach so often adopted.

I hope this is of some use!
Very best wishes
Bill

Oh I do like this! There is a rather quirky balance to the main characters in the tiny figures on the waterline, especially the one trying to escape out of the frame on the right (at least, I think that's it )
There is quite a lot of detail in the foreground gradually disappearing into the mist with the aid of the vignetting.
The curve of the horizon is disconcerting: since all definition has vanished by that point it might make sense to crop the top of the image off altogether rather than trying to correct the distortion. But that is relatively minor in a photograph that is both interesting and well-presented.
Bill

That was a really productive photoshoot!
Another classic pose including excellent eye contact.
The image overall would benefit from a little more space above and to the left. With the plain coloured background it would be easy to add some extra in software by increasing canvas size. You can keep the current proportions of the image by cropping from the right in compensation.
There is probably an 'official' artistic explanation; perhaps I should just say that you don't want to have your model looking too cramped.
Best wishes
Bill

Intelligent use of perspective in the composition and black & white in the processing: colour would risk detracting from the fine study of line. Beautifully balanced, an excellent image.
Bill

Three interesting and agreeable interpretations. V1 is my preference for the extra warmth that it suggests!
Have you thought of posting against a different background colour? Not to compete but to contrast with the subject; or perhaps a dark neutral tone, or black.
Bill

These are excellent, bringing the subdued richness of the Minster's stone to subtly greater prominence. V1 particularly impressive.
Regards
Bill

I wonder if it is a secondary image caused by the flashes firing slightly out of synch with each other?
On second thoughts, I think you may have been using rear curtain flash synch which would have combined with your very slow shutter speed and subject movement to leave a residual image of the beginning of the head movement while the end of the movement is recorded as a 'normal' exposure. At least I think that's how it works
Bill