It's not easy picking green, and do sunflowers count?????

[Celebration]

I am a huge Kermit fan, and NOT A GREEN FAN.

The short story is that I am giving up on the bridge entry. Case in POINT...



Got a bicyclist...who cares? Average.

But do sunflowers count, within about 200 yards of the bridge? I LOVE THEM!!

Not sure if they are green, but









This is hysterical--They were trying a timed family photo on top of a toy something



LOL, yes I helped them out

Not at all excited about this type thing



Or even the aloe plant in the yard



Sigh. Back to the bird?

Still, there are more sunflowers

This looks rather green



Or this???



I am commiserating with everyone having a difficult time picking a green photo!!
I feel your pain.

[Mz Pip]

1. I like your bridge shots

and I also like #9. The green sunflower fits the theme of the contest. It's unexpected. One imagines sunflowers to be yellow, but surprise! Here's a sunflower that has not found its true yellowness yet. :-)

This is a tough contest. I don't think I've given quite so much thought to my entry for any other contest. Green is so common. It's everywhere, so the idea is to find something that seems out of the ordinary. Or something common shot really really well... I like the bridges and the green sunflower because they are out of the ordinary.

Mz Pip

[Celebration]

2. Yes, commiseration!!

That helped. Thanks for your suggestions!!

I'm stopping the green thoughts for awhile to try to process all of this.

[Mira]

3. Let's talk, just between us.

I want to sympathize first for you giving up on the bridge. The photo you show of it, where you say so, is my personal favorite, and I think it's one you have not posted, but I could be wrong.
Something I am learning in my participating in the contests is that the agony of what to submit is real. And that, as Alfredo said sometime back, the bottom line is that you submit what appeals to you and then you can let it go.

I watched you go close to nuts over this green contest. And I identify looking back to how I did the same thing over "red".
I wish you could have elicited more comment from others, the people who are pros, excellent, consistent winners and who are hanging out looking and clicking but not talking.

I wonder why we don't have more constructive criticism here, and why the learning that happens has to happen so slowly from our figuring things out from either no comments, or sparse comments, or from simply watching the work of others in comparison to what we can do.

I love the photo forum, for me, as an amateur photographer who is never seen without a camera it was like coming home.
And I will hang here until I am kicked out.

Now, to your sunflowers.
Having maybe worn out my opinionated welcome by now let me tell you I like the entire concept, and when it comes to the photos, for the contest, the second to the last is simply perfect.

Thanks for listening to my thoughts.

[Celebration]

4. LOL!!

Your comments are great. It's weird. I learn a bit even posting in a virtual vaccuum. I absolutely love commenting on other people's photos, even if I only barely know what I am talking about. So I am keeping on keeping on, too. I am thinking seriously about the second to last sunflower, though I admit more emotional attachment to the bird. I am OVER the bridge.

[JeffR]

5. If I were fortunate enough to have these shots to choose from for my entry

I'd be in a quandary too. But I did love those bridge shots. I think, though, of what you posted here, the top green sunflower is alluring. There's more there than meets the eye, and what meets the eye is in itself enormously attractive.

[Celebration]

7. I think I have decided how to decide, at least

I sent my threads to one of my daughters, who has a good eye, and is my best critic. If she picks a bridge picture, so be it. Hopefully she won't pick "Kyoto Garden." Since I am sending her these threads to pick, please, daughter, do not pick "Kyoto Garden" or Japanese Countryside from a train, or the guy on the ground trying to get a family photo.

This is an experiment because I have never asked her to pick a contest entry for me.

Now I am going to sit back, relax, and wait for the verdict. Most importantly, no more bugging this group!!!

Thanks, everyone for the encouragement.

[JeffR]

6. Sorry to butt in, but I did want to respond to one thing.

A big part of the reason why comments are nil or sparse is - mea culpa - because people like me who never let a day go by without checking out the Photo Group, no matter how preoccupied I might be with navigating a newfound vale of tears, aren't taking the time to comment.

Some of the veterans here, and I guess I am one at this point though I still feel often like the eternal newb, have left DU completely, including some who taught me an incredible amount and helped me to take giant steps behind a camera. Others are sadly scarce. All are missed and all are vital to keeping this little corner of DU as great as it is. But the newer folks here are vital too, and have as much to teach and inspire with as anyone else.

But you do raise a good point about simply watching the work of others. Despite everything, I've been making it a point to do that, taking away lots of ideas. As Elvis Costello once said, and I can attest personally that he was right, every songwriter is a thief and a magpie. So too are photographers, I believe.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. true constructive criticism

is hard work, and takes time

Like Jeff said, there are those who are on thin ice around these parts... well, not these specific parts, but other parts nearby, and time here is not as unlimited as it once was.

That said, I love this forum. There are some great people here, and rarely am I not impressed with the efforts.

I am also not sure that my critique is worth taking the time to write. I feel most people, deep down, know what needs to be done. I know I do. Or I think I do.

which brings up another problem with photographic critique....

who is the audience? if it is just for here, to show off a good shot, that's one thing... I think people who want input should say so (and I know sometimes they have said so and got nothing, can't explain that) maybe that would help move things along.?

[Mira]

9. I'm glad you are weighing in. It's the most I have "seen" you say. I've been here

about 8 months, and I am living for the day you have ANYTHING to say about a photo I post.
That said, it is of course my huge admiration for your work that makes me say that. I have told you many times, for what it's worth, how I feel about some of your photos, and I know some of them by heart, remember most if not all somewhat, and have one as my desk top on my design computer.
(landscape - mountains - river - barnswallow)
If you enter that one, everything will probably come up green for you.

People learn when they get talked to.
People start learning what needs to be done slowly, much is by osmosis if surrounded by excellent examples, but not all.

I think the purpose of our little community is many fold, and the more direct we are in speaking or mind, or asking for what we want, the more we get out of it.
Just like in the rest of life.

Thanks for listening.

[Celebration]

10. no problem for me

Some people would just rather be quieter than others. I think that is fine. IRL I'm slightly on the quiet side of normal, believe it or not. I think I might learn more from just looking at people's pictures here than their specific commentary on mine, anyway.

Another thing is that a lot of people here are way more technically oriented than I really care to be at this time. So, if someone came back with any degree of technical advice, that would not really be useful for me anyway.

I do lose perspective on my own stuff. It helps me to post them whether people choose to comment or not. I am serious that my daughter picked my picture to enter. I think I may trust her more than the consensus of this group anyway. She picked a bridge picture. She just wasn't as sick of the bridge as I was. In the end, it isn't really about winning, anyway. But the only way to improve is to really care about the entry. If one doesn't care, then the contest would not serve its purpose.