Thanks for your comments Ray. I'm glad that you took the time to give a very valid and honest critique. As for emotions and meaning, I wanted to convey the mistreatment of this poor dog, and to show how a life can be treated like the lifeless clutter around him. The burnt areas are, unfortunatley, unavoidable because of the lighting conditions, and I must say that I didn't mind it being burnt because it gave emphasis on how "caged" the animal is. And besides, I think the eyes of the poor dog is the strongest point of interest especially because he is looking directly into the camera. Another unfortunate thing is the available hardware I used to scan this image. My scanner is a cheapo scanner (image directly scanned from a 4x6 print). I know I could have done something to sharpen it with photoshop but my knowledge about the software is limited. I will surely bear in mind the value of your critique, and if you have other tips, a person like me who has just recently discovered the joy of taking photographs, would really appreciate it. By the way, I would rather have 10 severe criticizms than 100 one word praises. Thanks again.
g'day Ryan, what message/meaning/emotion are you trying to convey with this image, this poor animal is certainly being badly treated, but does your presentation show it's plight in an emotive/strong/obvious manner
the strong areas of burnt out white distract and take interest away from the subject, the image is not sharp, and the perspective is almost dramatic, but not skewed enough
I raise these points not to be negative or discouraging, but to explain what, to me, detracts from this being a dynamic presentation
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