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Weekly Competition #63 Cute Competition

Competition Details
Closing Date: 21/09/2008
Judge: Darkmunk

A bit of eye candy. The image doesn't have to be of a living thing, or obviously cute like a puppy. I'm happy to see lots of puppies (who isn't?) but also cute little houses, cute little cars etc. - all valid.rnrnHave fun!
Winner
Seal

Seal

by timbo
Competition Entries
Darkmunk
Posted 22/09/2008 - 00:00 Link
I guess I asked for this... lots of snapshots of cherished things, but I was hoping for a little more imagination and a little more attention to the competition title, cute.
A lot of entries were of mature animals which although 'loved', just didn't fit the brief.
I'll paste my notes in their entirety below but I will also paste into the individual comments boxes so you can read this the way you wish.
BTW the stars aren't marks out of 5! just some way of ordering them.

1: johnriley - Peek-a-Boo Owl
A charming image, but looks like it was taken past a reflection in a window.
General blurriness and missing bark very distracting, comical but not cute to me.

2: Fat Cat - PHOTOPHIL
You just want to reach in and give that pussy a good tickle. adorably fluffy but cute? Well... I guess so. Poor image quality, cropped feet and general clutter ruin it for me but it's a nice image to have on your phone.

3: When I grow up! - beginner **
The first properly diminutive subject, nice capture, A little sharp (over sharpened?) for my taste, but lovely image.

4: Deputy Head Cat - Belinda B.
Title says it all really, this is a mature cat and quite feisty by the looks of it. So looses cute points.
It's a gorgeous image exquisitely sharp, lovely colours and would fair well in another competition.
At first I didn't mind the clipped highlights but the more I look at it the more the foreground white and hard shadow compete with the cat.

5: Doves - xbow
Mature doves don't really scream out, 'cute'
I'm afraid it does look like a grabbed picture. Nicely focussed on the main dove but the background needs cropping and prefferably a different shooting angle to make more of the flowers and less of the clutter.

6: Poser - PentaxAngel
I would say this is the opposite of cute.
Bird is chopped off and water(?) cutting through the image completely finishes it off for me.

7: Snowy Owl chick - conspicuity ***
Hey hey! finally, something CEEUUUTE!
Beautiful, quirky, nice background and not too sharp. Something about the crop or rotation doesn't sit well with me but I can't tell you what it is, so I'll ignore it

8: Really cute - lenscape
Cute?...foxy. playful, sexy, bloody lovely to look at, but cute?
Nicely exposed, charming image.
Photographically I would make less of the foliage and more of the legs.
Thanks for this lenscape but it's not a winner here I'm afraid.

9: A Honeybun for the Honeybun - GivingTree **
Lovely image, very cute. did she finish it off? :8
In the context of this competition I find the adult distracting. I would have loved to see her on her own - sat on a big chair, feet dangling. then I think it would be a priceless image.
Sweet capture.

10: Seal - timbo *****
Now we're getting there, beautiful picture, properly cute, lovely textures, great perspective and angle, perfectly exposed (although, incidentally the eyes seem a little milky).
Really, first-class and a pleasure to look at.

11: Monk Seal - Prieni **
Nice cute little seal, can't see anything wrong with the post processing, shame the angle wasn't a little more interesting. I feel like I only got half a seal. But a very pleasant, heart warming scene.

12: Kids camera Action - Dr. Mhuni **
Nice snapshot of a happy scene, you got down to their level - I like that, nice light on the central character, a lovely shot for the album.

13: Shep: - bigcog
This image might scream out cute to you bigcog, but in the absence of any knowledge of the animal, to me it's just a picture of a dog from an angle we all see dogs. photographically, the eyes are the sharpest bit, and I think that's about it really.
Try getting down lower, use a longer lens and wider aperture.

14: Cody - Bob and his Pentax
A cute dog and a nice gentle image, but again more of a snap for your own album than a strikingly cute picture for a competition.
I find it a little soft, especially the eyes. Even one of the best lenses available still needs to be pointed in the right direction when focussing. Half an ear and a lot of cold blue blanket continue to rob the image of star quality, but you have a great model there, so keep shooting!

15: Anyone for hockey - mike3legs
A nice moment for the album, cute, but not a great photograph.
Need to crop in - particularly at the top. try making your browser window really small and moving the image around inside the window, you'll find a more pleasing image in close.

16: Three lambs - HowardJ
Nice and cute, I like the letterbox format, would have preferred to see the lambs isolated against the distant fells rather than cut in half by a road and wall.

17: Shady Character - Coriander
Funny but not cute. Bit cluttered.

18: just posing... - royd63uk **
Nice tit, the composition makes him look small and vulnerable and I find the long, thin twig adds to his frailty but I think it looks even nicer if you click the image (full size) and then crop it quite close with the window. Good effort , cute bird.

19: just chillin' - watching some telly... - hefty1 **
She certainly looks cute like that, with her skin all runpled up and paws in the air. Nice and sharp where it matters. Nice light.
If you crop in quite tight it just gets better, don't need all that fabric and back leg IMO.

20: Cute lamb - Keen2Learn
Slightly too old to be really cute but it's on the brief at least.
I would use a longer lens and a wider aperture to get rid of the busy grass. shoot later in the evening and don't be afraid to lie on your front to get a better angle and make the background fall off more dramatically.

21: Tara - Galoot ****
Beautiful! pin sharp, gorgeous eyes, although,...she doesn't look too happy that uncle Galoot is round again
Children are so difficult to capture, especially if you have a limited time, this image transcends the family album and would be appealing to anyone, which IMO is crucial to this competition.
Shame about the radiator/wall.

22: Cute car - ikillrocknroll ***
Halayluya! it's not an animal! cute car obviously, nice choice of lens, great shame about the sunlight reflection dominating the image, and surely the front is even cuter?
Sweet image tho' like the big sky.

23: Cute - josh
Sorry, not cute, just a dog to me. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs and he looks like a cool pooch but it doesn't scream out cute.
However this is the angle the lambs needed to be shot at and it's a very nice picture.

24: Friend in Spain - Joe s
Again, only cute to you and a handful of others, but to the general public this isn't the personification of cute like a huge pawed puppy or gangly giraffe or Fiat 500 peeping out of a row of modern executive saloons.
The image has a nice quality but I would have preferred to see a bit of space top and bottom.



So:
1st place - Timbo - it had everything
2nd - Galoot - quality image and cute
3rd - ikillrocknroll - Creative, not perfect but some thought went into it.

commended conspicuity, hefty1, prieni
hefty1
Posted 22/09/2008 - 01:00 Link
I got a commended! I like that!

Well done on the judging and congrats to Timbo - by far the cutest picture in my eyes too. Funnily enough, my second choice of entry this week was a pic I have of a Fiat 500 - glad I didn't 'cos I think ikillrocknroll's was better...
Joining the Q
GivingTree
Posted 22/09/2008 - 03:04 Link
Congrats timbo! Quality judging, darkmunk, thanks for your comments.
"Just put your eye to the camera and push the button-thingy."
Flickr page:
link
Prieni
Posted 22/09/2008 - 05:14 Link
Well done timbo and Darkmunk! I think you got the right picture as the winner.

Prieni
How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean. - Arthur C. Clarke
Prieni's PPG page
timbo
Posted 22/09/2008 - 08:29 Link
Thanks very much Darkmunk.
You did a good job when faced with all that cuteness!!

Regulars will note that another of my seal pictures won the Sleep competition some weeks ago. You will be please to know that on that weekend at Donna Nook I only took 1300 images, so I only have 1298 left to use

On a technical note my images never look the same when I upload them as they do on my screen. They always look lighter - hence the milkiness in the eyes notices by Darkmunk (The lower eye was in fact cloned from another seal, as it is 100% black with no detail in the original image!).

I have an iMac, I convert them in Photoshop to sRGB profile and then save as Jpeg and upload. Am I doing something wrong, or is my screen out of calibration? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Edited by timbo: 22/09/2008 - 08:42
josh
Posted 22/09/2008 - 10:13 Link
Well done Timbo I would agree this was the winner. Thanks Darkmunk your comments appreciated.
Cheers.
JOSH.
Dr. Mhuni
Posted 22/09/2008 - 12:40 Link
Thanks for the judging Darkmunk, and congrats Timbo - well deserved.
Mhuni

500px
Hyram
Posted 22/09/2008 - 18:01 Link
timbo wrote:

Regulars will note that another of my seal pictures won the Sleep competition some weeks ago. You will be please to know that on that weekend at Donna Nook I only took 1300 images, so I only have 1298 left to use

As long as there are not 1298 future competitions where a seal on a beach could be entered
Hyram

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timbo
Posted 24/09/2008 - 07:50 Link
Hyram wrote:

As long as there are not 1298 future competitions where a seal on a beach could be entered

You'd be surprised at the number of subjects that lend themselves to a seal on a beach, it just needs a bit of imagination

Tim

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