Ariel
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by Jean_694:
BUNNY!! soo cute

Sweet Summer
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by SaraR:
Good composition here, Joe.

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by Monique64:
I like the reshoot better than the original. I prefer the flowers in focus with the mystery surrounding the figure in the background.

I See How it is.
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by kteach:
Neat shot... I like how the conversion to b/w has made the pink and blue elephants look almost identical.

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by kteach:
Ok, I keep flipping between the two shots and keep finding things I like better about each... so here's a list of what I prefer from each shot (to keep me from rambling).
Better in the original:
-The background (more trees to filter sunlight and keep sky from overexposing)
-Where you sat (on the side of the grass looks more comfortable/natural than the middle of the road)
-Placement of you/flowers in the frame (seems more set to the rule of thirds instead of flattened out)
-Lighting (seems warmer or more red as someone else mentioned, and also highlights your hair to bring out the shape of the person)
-Shirt (nothing wrong with flannel, but for this I think the plain dark shirt helps to convey the sad/lonely emotion)

Better in the reshoot
-Focus (much better to put it on the flowers)
-Your pose (seems more naturally filled with emotions of sad/lonely)
-Flowers (I like the 3 flowers with the whites better than the single yellow)

I can't figure out which dof I like better... I think maybe something in between the two (keeping the focus on the flowers but perhaps a bit smaller aperture)? Was there a reason to put the sunset in the background? Perhaps facing the other way would help lighten the subjects without blowing out the sky? And someone else mentioned a bit of processing to level, adjust colors etc. That would probably help as a finishing touch.

Overall though, this was a great idea for a shot for solo. Tells a story, and it isn't just one item stuck on a plain background. It's about whether YOU like the shot though, not necessarily the majority of voters. And, the way I see it, if I like a shot and find a few others who have connected to it, then it was successful (ribbon or no ribbon). If you haven't read the interview with Skip, he has some experience with shots that have been recognized elsewhere but did poorly here. It seems to happen a lot, so congrats for having the image recognized and placed on that website! It's great to see someone taking the time to get feedback and trying to learn more, so keep it up! If you have any questions about my rambling, feel free to PM me! I hope I was helpful in some way :)

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by macleodn:
I didn't comment on the one you entered in the challenge but I just had a look at it. I definitely think this one is better. It doesn't look like you did any post-processing so I'm going to rant about that :P.

I'm a fanatic about the horizon of a photo being straight, in this case the road is not straight. Maybe the road is not level in the first place, but I think in PP I would have straightened it (it is a little distracting).

The crop is good but I think I would have cut off a little more of the bottom under the flowers where it is dark and fuzzy.

I love the composition and the colors, even though the colors could use a little adjusting.

Take my opinion for what it is worth!

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by bfox2:
I'd agree that the flowers being the focus makes this much better, hands down. I'm not a fan of the sky, and the flowers could have been a little sharpened, but over all a much better shot than your entry.

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by surfdabbler:
Yes, I agree this is better than the first. The focus on the flowers is much better. For some comments for improvement, if you have access to some editing software, you could adjust the colour balance, as it looks a little off. I would try bumping the reds a little (but my first inclination is not always right - I find I have to play a bit to get it right. You might get a better result straight out of the camera by setting manual white balance to the shade setting, but I find it very tricky to get the balance right out of the camera, so I do a lot of adjusting afterwards.

Also, the sky has come out totally overexposed. This can be fixed at shooting time with eigther a grad ND filter (might be tricky to set for this image), or a complicated multi-flash setup, which can produce amazing results, but takes a lot of equipment and know-how to get a good result. The best fix here is probably to crop more of the sky out. It doesn't add much to the composition, so I'd say chop it halfway between the top of the shot and your head, and maybe a little off the left too.

Hopefully this helps a little. There's some good emotion in this shot, and I think it's lovely that you put flowers on your ancestors grave. And I don't see anything wrong with the shirt. :)

Solo Reshoot
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by aliqui:
I think this is much better than the other. I think the flowers in focus and you out of focus works better. Your pose on this one is better too. More emotion comes through than on the first shot. Your first shot looked more snap-shotty, where as this one looks more intentional. I'm not digging the flannel shirt though, heh.

One question.. why did you shoot it at that location? It strikes me as odd to be in anguish and to plop down in a park/cemetary road. I can see maybe along the road with the road in the shot, but in the road seems odd.

Solo Again
by Beautiful-Joe

Comment by johnmcboston:
Having the flower in focus as well would have helped me a bit. (Now I'm curious how it would look with the flower in focus but the person a out of the DoF...)