As pointed by Mat, I also liked the fact that words were incorporated into the images, making them look more appealing in my point of view.

My personal fave this time is Mat’s. I loved everything about it – must say that the composition is the strength of this image, the perspective alone is already a big punch. Grats, Mat!

Thank you all for your comments on my submission.

And about the color wheel just a reminder for everyone: Orange and Blue, Red and Green, Purple and Yellow But never be afraid to mix and match! Happy coloring! Enjoy!

Glad you mentioned the colour wheel, Joeps. The next challenge should really bring out some colour craziness!

And about talking sense into clients – what did you think of my thoughts to that effect in the beach portrait session? (http://site.rockportrait.com.au/2009/01/18/a-family-portrait-in-werribee-south/)

Steve, you know my thoughts on your photo as discussed. Mushroom’s pose here of seemingly deciding whether to go for it or not definitely shows the precise moment of being tempted. I also meant to ask, did you use Lightroom to make the image look so clean? That’s one of the qualities I like about your photos. They’re almost always look so clean, sharp and polished.

Mat’s photo also shows that moment of temptation – but in a longer time frame versus Mushroom’s photo which you can almost tell he’s going to jump at any moment. Max looks like she could stare at those pretty shoes the entire day deciding whether she was going to give in or not. Mat couldn’t have kept me still for that long unless I already had the shoes in a shopping bag! I love the movement you’ve been capturing in your photos, Mat! Good job!

As for Katy’s photo, the thought of what other fun you might have with those dice are temptation enough! The well placed question mark in the background paints that indecision that comes with being tempted which always looms at the back of your head. The red-orange and the blue colors compliment each other so much! The color wheel proves itself true once again! I must admit I haven’t thought about using complimentary colors on purpose for these challenges yet. If you did this intentionally, that is absolutely brilliant! If not, all the more brilliant!

Now about incentives – I think that would be a great idea to get readers to submit comments for the photos! Oh and reading through that link about Annie Liebovitz’s work was quite interesting, and at the same time makes me realize the limitations of being boxed by a client’s idea. I strongly believe in trying to talk sense into your clients heads when coming up with ads like this. Mind you I have a very limited experience with advertising (i.e. a few units in college)and what-nots, but all I know is that an FGD and a little feedback session never hurt anyone before launching an ad and avoiding a possible lifetime of shame. Oh my look at the time, that got me rambling! My apologies!

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys doing next week’s photo challenge!

I was referring to incentives for comments, not for the photographers. I agree that the only incentive we need is inspiration, and that it should definitely not become competitive. I am not a fan of photographic competitions at all, as who can really decide whether one photograph is any better than another. I give you a recent example.

Annie Liebovitz recently created an image for the Lavazza calendar, that in my opinion is not a photograph at all.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/12/the-worst-photo.html

As you will read on this page, and of course you can form your own opinion, it is headlined as The Worst Photograph Ever Made. Of course, that can’t be true in a world of cameraphones and where the digital revolution has allowed anybody with two cents to rub together to take photos BUT my point is that whether I like it or not, photography is art, and art is subjective.

Mind you – I don’t think this is the worst photograph in the world, because it’s NOT a photograph. This is digital art that was created FROM a photograph.

So, I won’t be turning the challenges into a competition.

As for incentives, I’ve been happy with this challenge as an inspirational thing more than a competitive thing, but if that’s the way we go you should consider setting up a voting scheme so that the winner is chosen democratically. Maybe we all give 3 points to our favourite, 2 to 2nd, 1 to 3rd or something along those lines.