Well, I done it. I e-mailed my six selections to the Popular Photography annual contest tonight. I ended up choosing:
+ Manual, Black Swamp Arts Festival, 2000
+ Mei (June 2004 – aka “The Artsy One”)
+ Wood County Fair (aka “Wood County DMB Under The Table Album Cover”)
+ Fort Meigs
+ Signpost, Michigan Renaissance Festival
+ Rose of Sharon
Photos I ended up not choosing and why:
The other Mei pic: I hadn’t been going to even consider that one until I posted it in my cubicle at work and Scott told me it looked like a postcard. I thought it looked like a snapshot, but that made me think maybe it was better… Well, maybe not.
East Hall, BGSU: Might have been more interesting with a more interesting sky. As it was… eh, it’s BG.
Gravity Games, Cleveland OH 2003: I agree with Amy that my composition was off. I cropped this one horizontally for a desktop theme earlier, but didn’t know how the crop would translate into an actual photo submission. I may try cropping and submitting it for another contest in the future, or I may just chalk it up to a learning experience and bring more than two rolls of film to this year’s Gravity Games. And my new teleconverter.
Cleveland Skyline: Didn’t receive the critical acclaim I was hoping for. I’d kind of liked it, but I liked the others more.
Random Affirmation (Birds Know They’re Alive): This was more of a “WTF?” snapshot that I took, and doesn’t have much artistic merit in and of itself. I still think it’s kind of a funny picture, but not necessarily contest material.
So… winners will be notified in October. I’m not getting my hopes up too much, but wish me luck, anyway. Go me!
Tom from work has been into photography for quite a few years and he said that he thought you were on the right track with the Cleveland Skyline picture. He said he “liked the lines” (whatever that means), but the power line and the flags in the background are a distraction. I didn’t realize it until he said it, but that power line and the flags are also what bothered me about the picture. You have this big powerful picture and this cool presentation, but there is this power line and some flags just hanging out and making it seem. . . ordinary.
Anyway, just some more input from my photo-inclined coworker and the person who knows diddly squat about photography (that would be me). 🙂
Amy
Actually, I probably should have mentioned that I posted unretouched pics… had I chosen to submit the skyline, I *definitely* would have cloned out the power line, although I would probably have left the flags in.
The color from the negative (which I scanned in) was also different from the color on the print from the lab. I was contemplating making it less purple and more blue, and making the colors brighter (increasing the saturation, that is).
Thanx, man. I *heart* constructive criticism.