Who left the joker in the deck??
by vawendy

Comment:
Picture yourself as a non-DPCer looking at this photo purely from a photographical perspective. What score then would you honestly give this photo? - who are those people and why are they relevant to the photo?

Yes it is technically a good (not great) photo but this isnt an arts and crafts / make-a-nod-to-other-DPC-members challenge... that is a dig at the voters btw not the photographer - even she recognises that there was nothing creative in the set-up: "then couldn't figure out anything creative to do with them. So it's a straight forward solitaire shot."

Food for thought. But congrats on the Blue :)

Checking the scores
by Judi

Comment:
I wonder who this is?... :p

Something doesnt look right with where your bum touches the frame (shadow not dark enough and the overlap is unbelievable). It looks as if you have your feet on the frame from the "reflections" (and hence me thinking it might actually be one photo) but i think there is some trickery going on here which is distracting... aside from that, nice job!

Overdue Update
by Marston

Comment:
not sure how you managed it but the focus is on your shirt and misses your face...

Silence
by Ja-9

Comment:
a rather sinister take on things... ;)

Cluster
by IreneM

Comment:
Maybe its my screen setup (although i havent changed anything for ages), but there is one hell of a lot of "uncleanness" in the dark area between the spoons (and a few highlights in the top right). I mention it because it is something very uncharateristic of your photography when under advanced rules.

"Spread Your Wings and Fly Away"
by hahn23

Comment:

Originally posted by scooter97: Sometimes a difficult technical shot is under-appreciated here. Have some of the low voters go out and try to get a shot like this!

No matter how difficult a shot is, it is the shot itself which people look at. Take a Porsche vs an old BMW 3-series with rusting and a bad paint job but with a new, drag-tuned engine under the bonnet and slicks on it. Doesnt matter that the Porsche isnt as fast as the BMW (ie the BMW is "technically superior"), people are always going to look at the Porsche, and on the surface think it is the faster (read "better") car...

So with that rather strained analogy out of the way, the shot doesnt strike you as it is shot in overcast weather and the colour contrast (and general contrast) is minimal. There is no real flow in the image / no point of interest (the eye just wonders around aimlessly looking at a mass of birds). It also looks on first view like it is a man-made reservoir and thus not "natural" for the birds to be there (read "not idyllic nature photography eye candy"). Maybe with a better backdrop, some "pop" in the colours and a composition which draws the viewer into an element of the photo to concentrate on then you would have scored higher. (i didnt vote in this challenge)

Looking at your portfolio seems to contradict that you wouldnt have seen this anyway - but i thought i would reply as you seemed frustrated that it didnt score as high as you thought it should.

Message edited by author 2011-05-05 15:34:46.

The Unlucky One
by h2

Comment:
Correct me if i'm wrong but i see 14 eggs... ;P

Exposed
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
I'd agree with the border comment (you already have a light coloured surround to the shot in the site's colour scheme), it may look a bit better if you put a black "stroke" on the edge so the image doesnt bleed into the border (see light patch on the edge at lower 3rd on left hand side, and general light patches of grass at the bottom) - or you could just use the site's 1px "stroke" and pack more of a punch with more photo...

metal gear solid
by klkitchens

Comment:
Where's Snake? ;)

Wooden Operator
by cynthiann

Comment:
What is a Challenge without woody eh? Cant fault this except the focus plane making the mic slightly out of focus, but at this scale that would be hard to combat.