Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:16:56 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq."
wrote:

My wife and I took home 4 ribbons last night's photo competition.

There were about about 75 B&W, 100 color print and digital photos
submitted for the 3 different categories. You are allowed to submit up
to 2 photos for B&W and Color and one photo for the Digital Submission.
I was blown away that we took home one Honorable Mention, one 4th
place, one 3rd place and a 2nd Place.

2nd place

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...rent=2ndbw.jpg

I touched this up some after the comments made in rec.boats. I do
appreciate your help.

I'd like to see what the First Place photo was - you did a nice job
tweaking that image. The gray scaling is brilliant - you have a nice
feel for graduation and impression.

No offense, I still think you've done better work though - in
particular with your initial portraits.

4th Place I almost didn't submit this one, I thought there would be a
ton of similar photos.

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...t=4thplace.jpg

A photo, I really liked, but it did not ribbon. The pro thought it
would be a much better photo if the girl was interacting with the
penguin. I thought her shy look made the photo.

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...twascute. jpg

You can see what he's talking about by comparing the two images. The
gorilla is interacting with something on camera - the girl is
interacting with something off camera.

The second problem with the penguin image is that there are two
subjects - the girl and the penguin. There is nothing to link the two
together - zip, nada.

He's dead on with that critique.

For reference, look back at your initial efforts with the portraits at
the Atlanta fountain and environs. Those, while initial, were simply
outstanding because they showed some sort of "story" - there was
interaction between the environment and the individuals. Even in the
single framed portraits, the subjects were inteacting with you which
was a very obvious impression when the images were tweaked.

An ordinary flower and bee photo that my wife said I should submit. No
ribbon.

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...=noribbon1.jpg

Deservedly so I would say - there is nothing special about that image.

My wife's two ribbon photos.

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...fe3rdplace.jpg
http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n...blemention.jpg

This is something that annoys the heck out of me - the extreme framing
right or left. It works somewhat with the bird because of the branch
being in focus and at a slight angle to the rest of the frame - gives
you some reference points.

I've always gone with the thirds protocol in situations like this -
you divide the framing up into thirds and if you are going to offset
the image right or left, tend to keep the subject in focus towards the
middle of the second third (right or left).

Having said that, I think it would have been a much better image if
the bird had been moved left more towards the center of the frame
still keeping in within the 2nd third of the image (if divided into
thirds) and the background branch cloned out as it's distracting from
the subject - in my opinion.

Same with the spider on the flower which I don't like at all - too
much blank space to the left. I think it would have worked much
better if Mrs. Reggie had used a macro lens and got right in there
with the spider using the flower as background.

To be honest, you've done better work - the marina pier lights would
have been a winner even converted to B&W. And you might want to try
that montage/collage deal with the horse next contest - graduated
images are always interesting.

And having said all that, I've got to hand it to you - you have a gift
for this - congratulations.


What "photo contest" was it?