Summer vacationby
MelethiaComment by mycelium: As requested, and with the "get more than a 6" thing in mind: I don't think the problem is that the image is too busy; it's that there's too much dead space. The interest here is definitely in the silhouettes, but a good third of the image is, for all practical purposes, pure black. Even just cropping out the bottom might have helped.
Ideally, you'd have been able to recompose from a different angle to (a) focus on the areas of interest without (b) pushing your photo to being nearly panoramic. Another option would have been to go HDR and use multiple exposures to keep detail in the foreground, although since this is clearly a dynamic scene, that was probably not a realistic option.
What it sounds like really drew you to submit this photo is its sentimental value to you. You can't expect that to resonate with voters in the same way it resonates with you.
Louis quoted someone who, in some context, said: "Murder your darlings." He wasn't talking about infanticide; he was talking about stripping away everything that has value only to you, and that a viewer won't see. In the case of this photo, that might have meant submitting something else entirely. That's not to say you have to go sterile, and I'm sure that many people can easily identify with a family day at the beach; but to the average viewer, the scene is as much about that (in silhouette) as it is about the one-third of the frame that's nothing but black.
ETA: I think you would have better off with either of these:
I like the second one the best because of the figure in it. It would have been even stronger if the figure weren't walking away--maybe viewed in profile, 3/4 view, or facing the camera.
Message edited by author 2010-07-09 23:39:17. 
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