Ivan Domazet, an IPC Juror with PPA comments in his IPC critique of my portrait image created in Hoi An, Vietnam, "Market Day":  "Really nice composition, nice juxtaposition here.  Color harmony, of course you nailed that right!"

Ivan continues in his critique, "Really like the use of the negative space here…space above her gives us a sense of size.  Got lots of detail where you need it, the sidewalks themselves and in the road, lots of texture.  I like how there is a wetness in the pots you get that good 3D feel from the highlight on the pot.  Your image is very well composed and perfect timing, I don’t think you could have asked for a better subject placement than this."  

He then explains why the image may have been dinged and not made the next category up which would had given it the opportunity to go loan. "The choice of an outer white mat presentation wise might be a little to stark for this...thing that this may be an image they if you carried out the gold tones it may have been bumped up."   

Ivan then goes on to say as he zooms in on the image (as they can not do this while judging), "Everything is so cleanly done here...if you did any post work…not saying you did…but if you did…its perfect, I don’t see any obvious evidence here…clone tracks nothing jumps out at me…there are no repeating patterns…no apparent dodging or burning…everything done thoroughly here technically very nicely done!"

"Congratulations…beautiful merited image…I'm sure its not your last merited image…I'm sure you will keep getting more of them..I'm sure if you haven't earned it yet you will earn your masters degree."

I'm very happy with this critique, even though the image did not make loan, it still received great recognition.  I personally do feel that judging an image and the possibility of bumping it down based on its matting is a bit of a challenge, as that is really a personal opinion.  I came from the school of photojournalism, ALL my prints back in the day were mounted and presented on a white archival matt (which I hand cut).  Now with the age of digital, to be so nitpicky about a matt color we are taking away from the artists hard work on what is really important...THE IMAGE.   I'm sure there will be many that argue with me, but that's ok, as it is my opinion which the color of a matt is also an opinion and we will never see eye to eye on that issue.

Hours of dedication and artwork was put in on this image, which clearly is noted above by the judge as being "perfect" and technically flawless.  But art is so subjective in the end. I myself was not visually comfortable with a colored border...I will try when the next time comes along, but I am still happy with my choice.

Each year I learn more through the process.  Looking forward to achieving my "Master of Photography Degree" hopefully in the next 1-2 years thru education and print competition.  Keep pushing myself forward!

SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE BEFORE & AFTER OF "MARKET DAY"