MUD SLIDE
by SunChild

Comment by emorgan49:
Hmmm- I liked this picture better than most people did because I see I gave it a six. Yep there is a lot of motion. Did one commenter actually say there was a lack of motion? ANd did another say there should be some still and some motion. I see both. Also the YOUTH of the picture is a strong point - everyone is young.

This is a perfect case of a "not quite" picture. It could have been much better but then it is a candid shot and you can't exactly ask the guy on the right in the blue coat to move over. It is out of focus, which seems to be an unforgivable sin here. The composition is very very interesting but has a few distracting elements. The action is great, The tangle mess of kids, shoes, arms in the middle of the mud forms compact ball from which one guy is beginning to untangle. I like that the one girl is offset a bit. So you have the center messy ball and then a rather tidy semi circle of up right onlookers who are all clean. There are little bits of interesting people, like the rasta hat or the guy in the muscleshirt and the wild hair behind him. so that the viewers eye travels around the semicircle looking at each onlooker individually. This is really a nice composition, probably textbook.

On the negative side there are a few things that just stick out as distractions. The guy in the white shirt and hat in the middle, and that orange blob, whatever it is. I actually like the lower corners being filed with stuff, it closes up the circular composition. You lost all your points for the focus, was it dark as well as active? There isn't really a way to fix up the photo. I can't see any better way to crop it. I like it messy and out of focus and disorganized - like the moment was.