Dear UHH members,
Sorting through my images is done on a regular basis. February has been a prolific month and I produced more pictures than usual. Now it's time to separate the wheat from the chaff. I've chosen 12 images that will be put into a special file. It's from this file where photographs for book #3 will come from.
I thought it would be productive if I could get a some feed back from you. Judging pictures like these is very subjective and that I understand.
I'll tell you some of the standards I have set for myself in choosing these.
They have to be sharp. Exposures and colors have to be correct. Back grounds have to be pleasing and not compete with the subject. BG cannot contain distracting objects that will lead the eye away from the subject.
There can be no preference of one subject over another.
Common birds have the same importance as the exotic ones.
Now I'm asking you to pick one that appeals to you, but pick just one. I'd appreciate this greatly. When this set has run it's course I'll publish the results.

Thank you so much in advance.
Joe

Hi, Jo! Let's see if I can be of some help. I made my own set of criteria for this. First, I eliminated anything with obstructions. This killed #'s 4 & 12. Then I went for the holding of interest. This killed #'s 1,2, 3, 5, & 10.

Now let me say why I killed the owl pic. He tended to blend too much with the background; especially his head.

Now for the hard part; the rest of the turkey shots. They are so cool. We will start with #9. As cool as it is, it seems too busy (if this makes any sense) and once again, the background seems to blend too much.

Here comes #11. Another nice shot but it looks like a stuffed and mounted turkey superimposed over a background.

#7. Just not vivid enough. This is all I can say even though I like it.

Why do I pick #6? It seems to fall in the category of not holding interest, but it does hold interest. Look at all of the factors and the criteria that you set forth. All of the colours are vivid and sharp & clean I am speaking of all; the red, the bark the snow, and even the background.

The lighting is perfect! It is like I am standing right then, right there. I know the exact angle of the sun not by just looking at the shadows but by how it reflects in the snow and how the light rolls off of his back.

The last important factor to me was how the background is separated from the subject with almost a 3D effect, None of the others have it to this degree.

Combining all of these factors for each and every photo is why I settled on #6. For those of us who like all the action such as in the turkey shots, does not necessarily make for a great shot. This of course, is just my opinion.

I hope I was of some use.

Tom

This is excellent Joe, thank you. Okay - my thoughts.

Visually looking at the thumbnails I was drawn to 3 pictures, 5,8, & 12
I then looked at the downloaded versions of these 3 and whilst it is a good picture I eliminated 5.

Being left with 8 and 12, initially it was a hard choice until I became a little more objective and ran them through your criteria.


Thank you for your vote. It's much appreciated.
It was close, but for me number 12 gets the ribbon! Even though I think it would be better to burn the bright grey part of the branch just above his head

Thanks for sharing these. Cheers, Mark