Comment from PhotoMama
Great compostition!
My 6 year old son just say this and said WOW MOMMY... Look at that fish.
I love the way the color fades toward the back of the fish.
Excellent detail and focus.
PhotoMama

 Comment Written 12-May-2004

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reply by the author on 13-May-2004

Glad he likes it, I do too. :)
Thanks for the comment.

Comment from S.C.Cobb
Boy photoshop seven, that name alone makes my mouth water! Im still on six! Anyway, such a rich and colorful piece. The black gives the impression of an endless fishtank, and the fish and the face seem to be sharing the same brilliant beam of light. A top notch piece of art!

 Comment Written 12-May-2004

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reply by the author on 12-May-2004

I found a camera shop that was going out of business because they were broken into three times in one week. Everything he had left was 75% off, so I had to grab it up fast. Thanks for your comment on my image.
Brian

Comment from cowgirlstorm
i love how you did this pic , the colors are wonderful and the fish is so clear and the bubbles are a great detail that you captured, the pic is crystal clear and i think its great

 Comment Written 12-May-2004

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reply by the author on 12-May-2004

Thank you cowgirlstorm, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on my image. The previous poster didn't realize they were bubbles and I was beginning to wonder if I hadn't made them visible enough. Thanks Again.
Brian

Comment from OS X
Fish is excelent... nice color nice black background, but why this claun??? and rings (flares)??? To much of Photo shop..

 Comment Written 12-May-2004

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reply by the author on 12-May-2004

Rings (flares) = bubbles; Claun? (I'm not really sure what you mean here unless you've mistyped CLOWN? A "Clown-Fish" is a real name for a fish found south of the equator near Australia I think. It's a play on words, Clown mask plus Gold Fish equals Clown Fish. I kind of thought the title and my explanation said it all, but that's the best I can explain it for you. Your post made me smile (A LOT), thanks for taking the time and making the effort to review my work. Brian

Comment from cbuffers
"Clown Fish". I get it. Very clever. And, wow, you really did put alot of work into this one. The images in the photo are so crisp and clear. Very, VERY nice. Should start a series of photos like these.

 Comment Written 12-May-2004

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reply by the author on 12-May-2004

I'm very Glad you got it, I thought I made it clear, however the poster above you seemed to have a lot of difficulty. Thanks for your comment. :) Brian

Comment from The Muse Diva
Holy Cow tis was amazing. I love this composition. Very enjoyable and the cotrast between the mask and the fish is terrific. The clarity on the fish is even more stunning, considering he is in water. That is a skillfull piece of macro work, along with the collage. Bravo:)

 Comment Written 11-May-2004

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reply by the author on 12-May-2004

Thank You for your nice words and comment.
Brian

Comment from Ms Vegas Eyes
What a interesting photograph. I love it!! Its fun and interesting. The lighting is excellent. The composition is very well put together. The colors are so vibrant. Great Job!!

 Comment Written 11-May-2004

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reply by the author on 11-May-2004

Thank you very much, I had fun putting this composition together.

Comment from Dogberry
Absolutely stunning colours and sharpness. The technical aspects of this shot are most impressive. A fine reward for all the hard work you've put into this image. And thanks for the detailed explanations.

The two separate pictures work well together, and are disturbing in their strangeness and joint lack of emotion - two masks together.

 Comment Written 11-May-2004

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reply by the author on 11-May-2004

Wow, I like how you think and write. Two masks... that makes me look at it in a whole new light. Thanks for that.
Brian

Comment from artfroggy
The expertise in creating this is excellent which is the highest praise I could give. The original idea did not quite come off though.

 Comment Written 11-May-2004

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reply by the author on 11-May-2004

Thanks, I don't know about expertise, but I do like to mentally make note of the procedures I go edit images, because I like to pass that on when I display an image in case someone else would like to try something similar with other images. I'm sorry the final work for you though, perhaps this image is one of those ones that has a personal joke to it that is amusing only to the creator (me) I was browsing through my recent (this years) photos, and saw the Clown "Mask" and Gold "Fish", which triggered the thought of my daughters fascination with the movie "Nemo", and Clown-Fish. When I showed her the image and said it was a Clown Fish, she disagreed strongly. I think I'm the only one who "got it", which isn't really good to the rest of the world, but it still brought a chuckle to my face.
Thanks for the comment, and for letting me know your honest thoughts on both sides, with the technical and overall evoked feeling. I think it's important for us to be honest with critiquing, and I commend you where some might avoid the criticism by not saying anything.
Cheers!
Brian

Comment from Cricket
Strange combination. But not bad. Just not understanding it I guess. Doesn't really carry my eye anywhere. But the clarity of the fish is good!

This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.

 Comment Written 10-May-2004

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reply by the author on 10-May-2004

Thanks Cricket,
I'm not really making a statement with this image either :), Just a play on words, and with photoshop. I guess the "Clown-fish" in the recent Nemo movie influenced this creation, and my little girls obsession with the character. The ceramic "Clown" face, and the gold "Fish" are the only two elements in the image, and I admit that without a descriptive title, any correlation between the two might be lost on most. Here's how I got such a sharp image of the fish without the use of an underwater camera case, and without glare from particles in the water and or the reflective surface of the glass:
With the camera mounted on a tripos only a few centimeters away from the surface of the glass, I attached a Canon Speedlite 420EX external flash to my Canon G2 Powershot camera. I then angled the flash almost straight up wards, and held a piece of white paper about six inches above the top of the uncovered aquarium. Setting the camera to macro mode with an apeture of 8.0 and ISO setting of 50, shutter speed 125 of a sec, I indicated to the fish that I wanted him to approach the lens. (I always tap on the glass of the aquarium before feeding time, this gets the fish to follow your finger, as I usually trace it along the glass until I make a path to the top of that tank, and this is where I insert the food. After a couple weeks the fish always respond to the finger chase / food game). When the Gold fish was in the right position, I used a remote control to release the shutter. With the flash bouncing down into the tank from above, none of the particles in the water reflect back towards the lens, any reflection would be up towards the direction of the bounced light. This also prevented the scales of the fish from bouncing light and glare back to the lens. I'd better add some of this to my image discription. Thanks again for your comments and critique.
Cheers!
Brian D. Watters

reply by Cricket on 10-May-2004

WOW!