Dreaming of Deerby
KivetComment: I like this picture quite a lot, but there are many elements working against it in this challenge. Primary among these is that it is not obvious that the deer is actually leaping the fence; it takes close examination to deduce that a/he's not standing on the ground beyond the fence. In other words, the shot's not dynamic enough to shout LEAP at the viewer.
Then, there are three very distracting elements in the image: the trash on the right side, the structure in the back, and the disembodied deer rump on the left. All of these are what I call "eyetraps", pulling our attention away from where it should be. Finally, the rightmost deer's face is hidden by a post of some sort, and this is mildly disturbing as well.
Finally, the dreamy PP use of glow, while attractive in itself, is serving to effectively isolate and empahsize two of the distracting elements; the disembodied rump and the piece of trash.
So, all in all, the image is fairly static (the leap is implied rather than expressed) and is compositionally chaotic (the eye bounces around like a pinball) and this, IMO, is why a potentially fine image failed to score higher.
Photographer found comment helpful.
