Does your chewing gum lose its flavour
On the bedpost overnight
If your mother says don't chew it
Do you swallow it in spite
Can you catch it on your tonsils
Can you heave it left and right
Does your chewing gum lose its flavour
On the bedpost overnight
San Luis Obispo California, Gum Alley, 50 feet of pure gross!
Shot early evening, looking East, image rotated 90% counter clockwise
Statistics
Place: 222 out of 231 Avg (all users): 4.4231 Avg (commenters): 5.6667 Avg (participants): 4.4222 Avg (non-participants): 4.4250 Views since voting: 1113 Views during voting: 241 Votes: 130 Comments: 10 Favorites: 0
I would probably have given this a four, or maybe a five if I had had enough coffee.
Why?
Plus points: The technicals are there - focus is mostly on (although it is still a little soft - did you sharpen after resizing?) DOF is fitting for the challenge and there is enough light / contrast to see what is going on.
Minus points: The composition is very centred and unexciting. Try retaking the shot putting the focal point further down and to the right, see what happens. It is a very, very busy image, which obscures what I believe is your main focal point. There is a huge variety of random colour, which also has the same effect. The light is not interesting. This is probably the single biggest thing - one abiding characteristic of the best photos on the site is the effective use of light... most of us have not nailed it yet though!
I didn't vote this challenge, so I'm seeing this for the first time. Got here through the "trolls" thread. You'd have gotten a 4 from me. Now let's look at your checklist:
Art evokes emotion. That's a valid criterion for art, but DPC isn't about "art" so it tends to be irrelevant. And even if DPC *were* about art, you still wouldn't expect to score well when pushing the revulsion button.
Adheres to the Challenge theme. It does do that :-) Shallow DOF is used.
Interesting color palate. The color *palette* is strange, I'll grant you that.
Interesting textures. I don't see it as partcularly *textural* myself; more a bunch of plastic-appearing blobs...
Details continue emerging if you examine the image for any length of time. This is true enough, but the same can be said for any detailed image, it's not really a point in its favor unless the details bear studying, and these really don't.
Original, unique composition. I can't agree with that. The actual composition is centered and fairly banal.
Similar subject matter rarely found. This is true; we don't see a lot of shots of chewing gum, and chewing gum alley in SLO is a one-of-a-kind place for sure :-) But in and of itself, this isn't a reason to give the image a better score in a photography contest.
Use of precious early evening sunlight. This is where I'm truly disappointed. C'mon! You had ACRES of chewing gum there. It was the golden hour, and you *recognized* this! Is this the best you could do? This unfortunately flat and boring angle of light, out of all the angles you might have chosen? You could have done so much more!
So, to sum it up, from my perspective you have a fascinating-but-yukky subject that you more or less completely failed to show to its best advantage, and your score reflects that.
I'm sorry. I said ewww. but it was meant as tongue-in-cheek.
I was serious about the 9. I see nobody agreed with me. I guess people couldn't get past the subject.
Art evokes emotion. Double check. Adheres to the Challenge theme. Check. Interesting color palate, interesting textures, details continue emerging if you examine the image for any length of time. Check, check, check. Original, unique composition, use of precious early evening sunlight, similar subject matter rarely found...
I am a newbie, and will probably never score in the top 20. For every perceived strength of the image that I list above I am sure two weaknesses could be found, but not one was mentioned in comments.
I guess with this crowd, if no other, I was expecting to get beyond ewww, ick, and gross to some of the technical merit or shortcomings. When I submit junk I expect junk, but this was a disappointing result for me.
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