I'm not very good at these, but this image demands being raved over so this critique had to happen.

When I first opened this image I was absolutely mesmerized. I was immediately struck by several aspects of it. First, the focus. Most of us are photographers and we all know what it takes to get such great depth of field and that is a small aperture....and at night, that means a long shutter speed. The complexity of this exposure is immediately apparent to me. YOu have the swans in the foreground that are white against a very dark background...a difficult combination already. Add in the brightly lit building in the background and the medium bright reflection in the water and you have 3 wildly different elements to try to expose evenly and properly in one single image. The combination of small aperture, long shutter speed, the necessary balance between ambient light and flash, and the contrasting colors and tones in this image would present a very good test of a photographer's skill. Many would not be up to this task. But this photographer has managed it perfectly!

The next thing that struck me was the composition. It's about as perfect as a composition can get! Yes, there may be the slightest hint of a tilt to the building and maybe a hair of perspective distortion but you'd have to look really hard to see it. I would have to say that the odds of getting these 3 swans in the perfect position to be in the reflection of the building like this are have to be somewhere in the vicinity of ASTRONOMICAL. : nod: Swans rarely float in one spot for very long so capturing this particular composition had to be a pretty quick action on the photographer's part. To have gotten everything framed this well, and determined the proper balance of flash and ambient light, aperture and shutter speed settings in such a quick moment speaks volumes to me about this photographers skills and experience!

Lastly, an element that too often gets overlooked in a photo, including mine I must admit, is a truly interesting subject. I can't think of anyone that doesn't enjoy seeing swans floating on the water in all their grace and elegance, but here, we have "invisible" water so they appear to be floating in empty black space which I find to be extremely complimentary to these swans. Having them backlit by the orange glow of reflection from the building pleases my eye a great deal and of course, the building itself is absolutely beautiful in its architecture, intricacy and lighting.

Add it all up. Any good photographer can tell you the elements of an incredible image...subject, light, focus, composition. These are not icing on the cake, these ARE the cake of a great image and this one has them all. I have often said, this is the best image I've ever seen. Haven't we all? And I imagine I'll say it again at some time, but though I have no idea how many times I have said it, I know that this image will stay in my mind for a very very long time...yet another mark of a great image, the ability to make the viewer feel something special and to make it stick in their memory.

Congratulations Ruth! My hat is off to you and sweeping low to the ground. I give you a perfect 10, well 5 I guess, but still a perfect score for "Midnight Swim".

To break down the elements of this composition, I love that the closest swan is outside the reflection of the building and that the other two seem to randomly work into the reflection. This leads my eye from the first, to the second then the third, floating over the reflection before coming to rest on the magnificence of the lighted structure. I'm totally drawn into this composition