Aquatic POTM March Discussion Thread

[paradise]

General POTM March is over, and Sean Borycki (Froggie - our newest Advice Team member) won this month with a Spectacular photo (below). Congrats to Sean, Tobi, Michael Wheeler, and the rest for great entries. One of the strongest top 5 or 6 photos in the contest so far.

Remember, April POTM submissions are now being accepted.

Let's discuss the entries and how you feel they should have stacked up.

http://aquatic-photography.com/forum/contests/0306a/14.jpg

[hir0]

congrats Sean. you have come a long way, and fast. great shot and hope to see more great shots from you.

[phishphorphun]

Yeah Sean, what Hir0 said. You sort of remind me of me when I started hanging out here.;)

I gave this shot my top score. Very well exposed and with wonderful composition. Only improvement would probably be to the underside of the fish being a bit shaddowy. A lighter substrate can help with that.

Congrats on your great work.

[Froggie]

Thanks for the nice comments guys,

I personally gave my highest score to the S. rhombeus. Technically I had a few issues with the shot, but felt it was extremely powerful and really captured the fish. I have to admit though that there's this tiny spec over the right eye that keeps bothering me. A sign I'm a bit too anal maybe?

[squidfish]

Congratulaions Sean you got top marks from me, a great looking Cynotilapia and capture. :)

I also rated Jay's shot highly as it was very appealing to the eye as was Stan's Discus shot.

Tobi and Michael congratulations on second and third. These shots have captured movement, which will always raise the appeal of the photo, but is so often difficult to achieve.

I also rated Andreas shot well as it shows some great, if somewhat unusual, detail.

Cheers

Rich

[paradise]

The shot that I was TOTALLY blown away with at a first glance was Tobi's Comet. I think it worked really well to capture the natural state of movement of the fish, it was crisp, sharp and exhumed beauty. That was my top pick of the month, along with Sean's shot. The discus shot was great too. I loved the feeling of the parent watching the eggs very intensely. It translated well. The only thing that was a bit awkward (I dont know if there is a way to really improve it) is the fact that the focus was RIGHT on the edge of the photo, due to the eggs being so close to the corner of the tank. But I guess you can't tell them where to lay.

[t_chelle16]

Thanks. :)

Honestly, I was actually thinking Michael's shot would get first, although I scored both his & Sean's the same. I love the composition of Michael's, but I do think there were some technical issues (not quite crisp enough for my liking). And although I'm not a huge fan of simple side-shot portraits, Sean's shot was technically very nice.

-Chelle

[Andreas Werth]

Hi,
i also would like to congratulate the winners and thank all voters.

Sean´s cobue got my highest score, excellent portrait shot.
In my personal choice, it was followed by the trio Marc, Alan and Stan.

Some other photos in the contest looked very promising, but failed to score higher due to some technical issues. Nevertheless, interesting shots and good work was shown here.

[Ibn]

Great set of submissions this month. Sean's shot was excellent. Andreas', Jay's, and Marc's shots were excellent as well and I gave them pretty much equal marks.

Another shot that I thought was quite nice was Alan's shot of one buff looking frog. Brought a smile to my face when I saw it, haha.

[alanhill]

A tough contest this month. I think Sean's shot deserved to win, at first glance I thought 'another pretty Malawi' - but as I looked closer I saw how detailed and controlled it was. Tobi's comet was good, the fins were nicely spread, except for the ventrals (which I saw as a little fault).
I liked the close-ups Michael's piranha and Andreas' softshell turtle were excellent. My frog wasn't as good, but it was my first digital aquatic entry (so I'm still a beginner in some ways). I was hoping to shoot the frog using her hands to stuff the bloodworms into her mouth, but she was too fast for me - greedy little thing!

Alan

[yorkshire]

Well guys, i honestly thought tobi's pic was the best quality pic, and i didnt think i'd get any where near 3rd place. thanks for the votes though and its an incentive to keep trying. one question, are you allowed to photoshop the pics? I'm pretty new to the game and am still confused about what can and cant be edited? please please dont think i'm trying to critisize any pic at all, i'm just wondering if i need to concentrate on learning to crisp up my pics an learning some editing skills rather than posting them as i've taken them?

[RazorBlade]

Congrats to Sean on a beautiful capture. Most have already been said about this capture, so there's nothing much for me to add. Not my fav for this contest, but definitely Top3 in my list.

I LOVED Tobi's capture - Tobi's was my fav for the contest. The "action" shot was to my personal taste. A deserving 2nd placing.

Michael's fish also had that "action" feel to it. I liked it too. Great capture.

On some of the other entries: Stan's was a good capture, but yeah - the fact that it had to be at the edge of the glass kinda ruined it (out of Stan's control, that). Andreas entry was neat - very unusual, very interesting. I liked Jay's entry as well. Alan's entry brought a smile to my face, but other than that something didn't click with me. And I had expected Ron & Ted's entries to do better.

And Christian - that's one really neat peacock! Lovely! (I'm always a sucker for Malawi) ^_^