View Full Version : Aquatic POTM October Discussion Thread
JerseyJay
10-16-2005, 1:25 PM
Congratulations to Ed Greenberg (aka. paradise) for winning the October Aquatic POTM contest.
Congratulations to Jay Luto for taking 2nd place and Bobby Phillips (aka. phishphorphun) for taking 3rd place !
* Now it is time for your November submissions. We need your Real name, User name, Title, and photo (640 max on both sides) emailed to admin@aquatic-photography.com
http://aquatic-photography.com/forum/contests/1005a/13.jpg
phishphorphun
10-16-2005, 2:21 PM
Interesting effect Ed. It looks like this shot would make a good impact photo for commercial use.
It almost appears abstract to me.
I liked Jay's guppy a little better than this one though. Besides being a beautiful subject, he did a great job of even exposure and framing.
I know self praise is no praise at all, but I am a little dissappointed in a third place finish during this month's competition. It was one of my best exposures of the Lwanda and I thought it was a bit sharper than Jay's guppy. Perhaps folks are tired of seeing this fish. I just got beat out by better photographers. :-D
I really thought that the fish and tree shot would have been the one to beat. It was a bit dark, but so interesting and created a very submerged mood.
Congrats to all the entries. This competition is only going to get tougher.
Andreas Werth
10-16-2005, 3:20 PM
Hi,
congratulations to all three winners :-)
To be honest, this time it was not easy to pick out a clear personal favourite. Therefore three photos got the same (high) score from me: these three were Edīs (place 1) and Jayīs (place 2) and Alanīs! Although the two little Tropheus are not as sharp as i (!) wished, the idea behind the photo is great. My winner for composition and creativity in this round (Alexander is good here, too).
@Bobby: perfect pose & lovely lwanda! But the photo is too bright and the background a little too well-lighted (and therefore disctracting) - only my very personal opinion, but perhaps you are interested why people vote as they vote.
To all others: keep up with the good work!
t_chelle16
10-16-2005, 4:42 PM
Nice photo, Paradise. I fully expected it to score really high. That said, I think I would have liked it a lot more if it had included the whole fish. IMO there's a fine line between a closeup and cutting off the body (if that makes any sense). This one is just slightly on the cutting off the body side.
-Chelle
Obliviou$
10-16-2005, 5:04 PM
Killer shot Ed.
My pick for the win!
JerseyJay
10-16-2005, 9:05 PM
Ed,
Well deserved and something very unique ! When you get a chance, lets see more shots of that same object.
JerseyJay
10-16-2005, 9:17 PM
I liked Jay's guppy a little better than this one though. Besides being a beautiful subject, he did a great job of even exposure and framing.
I know self praise is no praise at all, but I am a little dissappointed in a third place finish during this month's competition. It was one of my best exposures of the Lwanda and I thought it was a bit sharper than Jay's guppy. Perhaps folks are tired of seeing this fish. I just got beat out by better photographers. :-D
Bobby,
It is all personal preference at the end of the game. I felt the same way many times but one just have to go back to the drawing board and keep snapping. As for as exposure, I have to agree with Andreas. Your submission was a bit too bright and background was too overexposed for my taste. Nevertheless, gorgeous fish.
As for as my submission, it is a betta not a guppy :)
Well deserved win, Ed. Although the fins did get cut off, the angle taken at is very unique and I really like the composition on this one. This is what pushed it slightly above the others.
paradise
10-16-2005, 10:22 PM
LOL, thanks guys. IT's funny, I was not going to enter at all, so I included an old shot from the now Year old session w/benny at my house. I dont have the subject anymore, it was "borrowed" from a store to take pics with. I do love that shot, but I included it because I did not think it had a chance in hell of winning. Seriously :)
I thought it would be a battle between Jay, Bobby and Alan. Alan's shot is just SOO cool. I scored those three really high, followed by Bjarne's discus, just for the amazing Clarity of the image.
Thanks, Y'all. :) Oh, yeah, need those November entries. :)
paradise
10-16-2005, 10:50 PM
BTW, I hope you guys paid attention to how close this was. The top three spots in the contest were .10 points apart. That is EXCELLENT.
RazorBlade
10-17-2005, 3:41 AM
Congrats Ed! Killer photo you have there. ^_^
Any comments on Bjarne's Discus submission? I believed it is a great-looking capture too!
I'm surprised AquaGhost's photo didn't score higher - I thought it had great mood and artistic value. Oh well!
MrTree
10-17-2005, 8:07 AM
It was definitely the most eye catching shot, very unique.
Cheers,
squidfish
10-17-2005, 3:07 PM
Congratulations Ed. I have always liked this shot since I first saw it a while ago. Some great entries this month :)
Great work everyone.
Cheers
Rich :)
alanhill
10-17-2005, 6:21 PM
I can't play this game - I thought Bobby was going to win and Jay's Betta would be second. I didn't think Ed had a chance - lovely shot though it is - because it was only half a fish. Congratulations to everyone, particularly to the people whose shots did better than mine (and thanks to the people who liked it - I thought it might get the originality vote).
Let's hope the quality is as good next month :-)
Alan
paradise
10-17-2005, 6:49 PM
I can't play this game - I thought Bobby was going to win and Jay's Betta would be second. I didn't think Ed had a chance - lovely shot though it is - because it was only half a fish.
Alan, it's funny but that is exactly my thought. I thought the two would battle it out for 1st spot easily, but I wanted to put a shot in to "participate" and put an old shot that was kool but was not amazing, it's a year old and I have grown since then. I was shocked to see it winning after 3-4 days and was still hoping that would change. Jay and I discussed it before too :)
Hmm...interesting. Both of the pics that I thought would take did take it. :)
Really close contest overall and it could have gone many ways. Definitely would had I voted differently on one shot (Jay knows about some of my cryptic voting criteria).
paradise
10-18-2005, 1:55 AM
LOL, eric, no one person could have changed it that dramatically. Photos got close to 50 votes, 1/50 of a vote would matter only if you did something drastic, i.e. change from 10 to 1 or something like that. But I agree, it was extremely close in aquatic this month.
Willy wombat
10-18-2005, 10:27 AM
The quality of this image shone through for me. My pic for the win too. I remember when you posted it up on the forum a while ago it stood out for me then too.
paradise
10-18-2005, 2:47 PM
That said, I think I would have liked it a lot more if it had included the whole fish. IMO there's a fine line between a closeup and cutting off the body (if that makes any sense). -Chelle
Here, I just dug up a body shot of the comet. Same session:
http://aquatic-photography.com/pics/comet.jpg
Obliviou$
10-18-2005, 2:51 PM
I have to disagree Chelle.
I'm happy to see something different. And that's just what Ed has accomplished.
A great perspective, and a different composistion. I'm not bothered by the cut body, it's one of the better fish pictures I know of.