Fishin' in the City
by NikonJeb

Comment by MWitt:
Good photo, nice colors

Fishin' in the City
by NikonJeb

Comment by emily212:
fun did they catch any thing good?

Blue Glass Cornucopia
by NikonJeb

Comment by Dave Gordon:
The subject seems to be the entire table; the blue cornucopia is not separated enough to be a separate subject.

Fishin' in the City
by NikonJeb

Comment by Jutilda:
How funny. I like the juxtaposition of the guys in the water with their gear, vs. the city skyline. Not a fan of the blue frame.

Fishin' in the City
by NikonJeb

Comment by Retroesque:
Good idea, but the photo lacks crispness to my eye and the blue frame is a little too much.

Ducks in the Mists
by NikonJeb

Comment by levyj413:
The lighting is really terrific, as is the scene in general.

That duck in the foreground does bother me, though. It's just so big that to have it out of focus detracts.

Then there's the issue of it being a wildlife challenge. I think a sharp foreground duck and ducks on the water, and a somewhat blurred house, and you would've gotten a huge score. The usual trend is to make your subject sharp, and that's the large house and small ducks on the water.

But in a free study, as it is I think this would've done much better.

Either way, it's obvious that you chose the DOF; you didn't accidentally make the closer duck blurry. So then it becomes a question of whether I agree with your choice.

You said over in the team suck forum that you looked forward to explaining your thinking, so why not put it there in the comments? You can edit those post-challenge just like a shot in your portfolio.

Ducks in the Mists
by NikonJeb

Comment by JuliBoc:
Okay, Jeb, here is my comment. First of all, I think you had a very acceptable score and ranking. I think it would have been even higher if the goose/duck in the foreground had been in good focus. The mood of the scene is excellent, the landscape is excellent, but the wildlife in the foreground is out of focus. This is the first place the eye goes when viewing the shot -- it is the lower right power point (intersection of the 1/3 divisions). I think even if you had put this in Free Study, the focus would have been a problem. A very long DOF with the foreground in focus would, in my opinion, make this a lovely, high-scoring shot.

One other thing that I think may detract from the overall quality of the composition is the very hard and sharp edges of the surface where the goose is standing. It is in harsh contrast to the soft, misty feel of the rest of the image.

Finally, the house in the distance seems to be off kilter. The whole image needs to be rotated slightly clockwise.

I'm no expert, but that's the way I see it. I hope this helps.

Black and White
by NikonJeb

Comment by jaysonmc:
I voted on the image, but never really commented on it. In reality you were very very orignal with this shot. It is a shot that breaks the grain yet works because it still fits the challenge. I love the idea!

However, being honest here I dislike it as a portrait. Even if the portrait was in black and white I still wouldn't vote it high. It's just not a good portrait, at least to me. Harsh light, awkward/downward pose, skin too shiny, and it is hard to see the eyes. The model almost seems to be squinting/moving away from the sun. Did you use a fill flash? I think some added lighting would have helped. Don't get me wrong, the subject has strong interest just the setup is wrong to me. I do like the background color choice, good use of depth and focus. I am being a little harsh here, I know... Of course take this lightly, I am horrible at taking portraits.

What I am saying, if this would have been the same colorized idea but setup as a traditional portrait it would be an easy and rare 10 from myself. As it stands it is just average even though the idea was awesome.

Ducks in the Mists
by NikonJeb

Comment by jaysonmc:
I think overall the mood is great. It is a very artisticly done shot. I don't mind the depth choice used here, I think having the front duck slightly out of focus works great. There are just a few compositional elements I would change, and really this is mostly beyond your control. The ducks in the pond, I wish they were more to the left, or at least the two to the furthest to the right. They distract just a bit from the front ducks form. It would just be a small element that would make a better line and get more involement in that middle section. Lastly just a slight adjustment in the angle, maybe just a bit higher, so you could get the foreground duck's head in the water rather than covering up some elements in the background. Granted of course that you can still maintain the same general perspective

However, I'm just picking on very small details here. It's the type of thing that makes a great wildlife picture extrodinary. Sometimes a little luck has to come into play. Wildlife I think is the hardest, because in the purest sense you have the lease amount of control of your subjects. This is really a tremendous photo you have here!

Ducks in the Mists
by NikonJeb

Comment by mist:
I think for this I would have had to go one way or the other with the depth of field. Either drop down and attempt to bring the duck in to focus, or push the focus further away. As it is my eyes are drawn back and forward in an awkward manner. The general composition though is outstanding.