HI greetings from the CC. I think this shot may have been more successful with a 'typical' use of DOF, where the objects in the foreground are sharp and the background is blurred. I think the top would be nice if it were cropped out as well it is a little overexposed. Although I can see doing this may have made a small image even smaller. You may want to try to resize your images to be a little bit bigger if at all possible. I hope these ideas help a little. keep shooting!
lynn
The off angle crop threw me off a little, I expected teh pieces to be vertical and the trees to just be trees. The overblown sky didn't help much, but I am assuming it was a grey day and that is the best you could get out of it. I really like the POV, and the lack of an opponent, as from here, it really makes you look twice. This is an enjoyable picture to look at.
Huh? Weak connection to the theme at best; having the foreground so out of focus makes it hard to keep looking at the picture, and if it were me, I'd get a picture of the PEOPLE waiting in silence rather than the chess pieces. 2