Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by samtrundle:
This is quite charming. It's understated nature is likely both the reason you have made 450 dollars from it, and it's downfall on dpc. I didn't vote on this challenge, and it's honestly not the style of photo that typically takes me, but I still think this should have been 50 odd places higher. The only real complaint I have about the image is, as zeusen notes, a lack of definition in the sky above the house - I think a little blue and some puffy clouds would have really helped - oh well, it's tough to change the weather :)

Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by GeneralE:
I appreciate the additional explanation about the crop on the right. I think what "bothers" me about that is that, with the smaller room a perfect rectangle shot square-on, too much attention is now drawn to the "missing" cottage off the right edge, rather than to the junction/relationship of the cottage to the marsh, which you state is the primary subject.

Had you been standing just a couple of feet to the right so that you keep essentially the same composition but with a very slight perspective of the cottage wall receding into the marsh it would soften the impact of the missing building.

Since the topic was Architecture, I'm sure a lot of people just expected you to concentrate on the building. Still, I voted on the high side of the bell curve ...

Neon Bowls
by Bear_Music

Comment by cardmaverick:
Was there a lot of editing involved in this picture?

Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by strangeghost:
Yeah, you were robbed. I doubt that the typical DPCer stopped to look more than a few seconds to critize cropping the house out. The composition as is shows a lot of attention to detail and the elements are are very well balanced in an understated sort of way. Beautiful colors and tones as well.

Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by Bear_Music:
I didn't expect this to get a ribbon, not flashy enough, but I am stunned that it finished 175th out 0f 221... It's one of my favorite pictures.

Even granted that it is subtle and quirkily composed, you'd think it could at least make the top 50%, sheesh...

Regarding the composition, I wanted more grass than sky, I wanted it to be unbalanced that way. Ditto the tight crop on the right. It's the relationship of cottage to marsh, structure to environment, that i was after. Yes, smoke would have been nice, but it's a summer cottage; nobody lives there in the winter.

Looking at it afterwards (and I mean RIGHT after I shot it) I realized I needed a a little more sky (not much) but the "moment of light" for this shot only lasted like 45 seconds or a minute, I ran out and drove over here in a brief interlude of weak sunlight near sundown on a bleak day in the midst of a bleak week near the end of the challenge period.

The right edge of this image, BTW, is VERY precisely selected, it's by no means an accidental thing. look at the window mullions and the fence slats; give it a hair more on the right, and you get a new slat; a hair less, and you lose a mullion. Move far enough over to end it after the next slat in the fence, and you've got a mullion problem and an "almost complete" window, which I definitely did not want. I wanted this cottage to bleed off "edgily", it affects its relationship with the landscape. The same shot with the whole cottage, had I taken it, would have been an utterly different thing. Had I gone back enough to include the door, as one person suggested, it would have been an utterly different thing.

I particularly like the way you can see the view THROUGH the window.

Robt.

Message edited by author 2013-12-08 12:18:05.

Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by zeuszen:
I was a little less enthusiastic than ubique (below) in my reception and rating of this entry but agree with the essence of his post. The subject choice is, to be sure, considerably less ostentatious than others available in this context, which appears to have influenced the voters negatively. I regret this, because this quiet and unassuming take on the challenge topic remains a charm reserved for the few instead of the many.

I would have liked to see a little more sky above the chimney (for some smoke to rise that way, potentially), particularly if the sky had more definition, clouds, variation...

Cottage by the Winter Marsh — Herring River
by Bear_Music

Comment by ubique:
5.051, and 64% of votes were 5 or less! I do not have words to express my dismay at this outrage. So I will use instead the immortal words of John McEnroe: "You Cannot Be Serious!"

Waiting Out the Snow
by Bear_Music

Comment by MichaelC:
Appears that you have over-used a filter, but if this 'as is' then it's a great shot

Hazy Afternoon — Brant Point Light, Nantucket Town
by Bear_Music

Comment by Gallatin:
Beautiful capture of this lighthouse.

Hazy Afternoon — Brant Point Light, Nantucket Town
by Bear_Music

Comment by Skip:
this looks like it would be a nice place to shoot. just wish you had come at a more interesting time of day (morning or late afternoon), and that you had chosen a perspective that made use of the unique architecture of the lighthouse. as is, this comes off a bit snap-shotty (ie, uninteresting, except to document that you've been there). good luck!