All images copyright by the individual photographers

	The Starlight of DUMBO by Edgar Ballestas My first reaction to Edgar’s photograph was that it reminded me of an Andre Kertesz photo taken in 1928 in Meudon, a suburb of Paris, France. Of course, the Kertesz photo was black and white and it was taken during the daytime, but the tall bridge at the end of the street between two buildings is remarkably the same.  There are several compositional elements that work really well in this photograph. Edgar placed his camera very close to the ground – a wonderful perspective and so unexpected. The two sets of stop signs immediately force us to the center of the image. The light in the street; the converging buildings; and the starbursts all lead us to the magnificent and looming Manhattan bridge hiding in plain sight in the dark shadows at the back of the photograph. This is a well seen and well-planned photo, long before the shutter was released. By the way… Dumbo is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The name is an acronym of "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass".
Ocean City Sunrise by David Somers David’s panorama photographs make excellent use of this alternate format to the traditional 2/3 ratio and square compositions. These wooden posts were probably once part of a pier, but now a skeleton of history, still beautiful even after decay has set in.  The repeating form progresses out from the foreground to the sunrise---bringing the viewer’s eyes in a well-constructed path by the photographer. Letting your imagination soar, one could almost imagine similar structures in Neolithic Stonehenge with the two upright forms capped with strong horizontal elements. The line of the shore holds the photograph together, almost mirroring the lines of the piers, moving from the right side of the panorama, with little detail, to the ultimate target…the beautiful colors of the sunrise. This is the kind of photograph that belongs on your wall, a place to focus your attention and enjoy this image.
	Colors of the Morning by Scott Hooker This is  wonderful image of the beauty of the morning.  The composition makes use of the strong colors of the early morning sky; however, Scott cleverly utilizes the reflection on the surf to provide visual movement to the composition. The reflections couple with the beautiful clouds to pull you into the photograph, taking you to the horizon.  BUT the viewer is also grounded by the remnants of a tree that anchor you to the beach…creating tension between the foreground than the background. To further the excellence of this composition, the use of shells on the beach adds texture and interest, which would not have been the case if the foreground was just smooth, featureless sand.
	Rose Garden by John Solberg John has done a wonderful curating job in bringing three partners to join him in displaying the beauty of trees captured photographically. It is interesting to see how a common subject can be treated so differently by four skilled photographers. John makes use of an amazing post processing technique to take an object, walk around it and take multiple photographs from each position on the 360 degree walk and then combine them to get this effect. It speaks to the Cubist movement, when a face was painted from multiple vantage points and displaying on a two-dimensional canvas. This photograph is almost “childlike” in the innocence it presents. The tree stands strong among the flowers, ringed by a bench that almost seems like a barrier to keep the tree from escaping, yet a serene one which adds to the beauty of the compositions. Colors are muted greens, punctuated by the splashes of color from the roses. The sky is a recessive element, focusing the viewer on the subject. Sometimes using special effects doesn’t work…the “wires show” (like a bad magic act) but John’s photograph is organic, the effect is so ingrained in the photograph that you enjoy the image for how it presents itself to the viewer. Of course, you wonder about how he managed to get this image and the techniques he used, but one doesn’t marvel as much at the technique than at the result.