Any comments welcome

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"]<span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]Any help with these two would be helpful. I&rsquo;m thinking of submitting one of them for a competition here in Athens. Which one? What can I do to improve them? Obviously the competition submissions are not so OOF and don&rsquo;t feature the copyright notice. Exif: Canon 40D, ISO 400, Sigma 30 mm prime @ f/2.8, Av mode, no flash.
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"]<span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]Non-Exif info: I live near to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, a place whose employees live to shout &ldquo;no flash&rdquo; at anything that moves. This is the place, incidentally, which houses all the stuff the Brits, French, Germans and Americans haven&rsquo;t bought or, er&hellip; borrowed, until the brand new &ndash; and astonishingly ugly &ndash; New Acropolis Museum is opened in the spring of 2009. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"]If politics is the art of the possible, museum photography is the art of the impossible. Conservators take obscene pleasure in ensuring the worst possible lighting / positioning for exhibits and then ban you from taking a mono/tripod or flash (when they allow you to take a camera at all), but it is a lot of fun:
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"]<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"]<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]&middot;<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"] <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]Your models stand still for hours and are free &ndash; they&rsquo;re not very responsive, though
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"]<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"]<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]&middot;<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"] <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]There&rsquo;s usually a museum coffee shop where you can lick your wounds and plan your next attack
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"]<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"]<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]&middot;<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"] <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]You learn about real-life lighting
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"]<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"]<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]&middot;<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"] <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]You end up learning something (eventually, in my case).
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"]<span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"]Thanks in advance for any constructive criticism.
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"][img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.23.67/prax_5F00_mono_5F00_crt.jpg[/img]


Some of the background toning has been lost in the upload of the mono. It's slightly better in the colour version.


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.23.67/prax_5F00_poly_5F00_crt.jpg[/img]

+1 for B/W itaccentuatesthe form/texture.


maybe the copyright tag could be used forcensorship. [:P] just kidding looks good. I'd love to visitAthenssome day.

Here's another vote for the B/W version of your shot. I think it's a little more dramatic than the color version, with better contrast in the shadow areas. The surface detail is nice, I'm sure your competition versions must have a bit more sharpening, which adds even greater texture to it. Good luck!

I vote for the B&amp;W. Nice.