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Rejects from the Pentax Photo Gallery

I submitted a bunch of photos to the Pentax Photo Gallery and they accepted a few and rejected others. Here are the rejects! Why post the rejects here? Well, because you can see the accepted ones here!

Seriously, I'm curious as to why these might have been rejected. Any ideas?

I've always found cherry blossoms difficult with regards to color balance. Is there anything obviously wrong with the color balance?



reject1.jpg




reject2.jpg




reject3.jpg
 
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Michael Fontana

pro member
Hi Edward

>Seriously, I'm curious as to why these might have been rejected. Any ideas? <

like Asher, have my congrats for the accepted ones!

As for the rest: a jury is "just" a bunch of humans; therefore personal preferences, taste, attitudes etc of the jury members do play a role. If you nail it down to the bottom, it might even depend too, if someone likes cherries, etc ; sometimes it's called luck, sometimes it's called subjective judgement.....

I find it more interesting, what you personally will find the best of your selection, maybe in one or two years. Because you as a author are subjective, too: after working nearly 30 years with pictures on a daily base, I sometimes realise, that a shot, intended to be a keeper, isn't really so good as I thought; meanwhile a low-rated one starts to shine after a while only.....

BTW: I didn't find your picts in the collection, maybe you should give a hint.
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
Thanks, Cem; now I found them!

Well, I think the jury took rather the cherry-images with a certain type of perspective....

Just for the subjectiveness: Years ago, I paid my study with beeing a stockmen in the swiss alps (7000 ft) during holidays, I appreciate the cattle's shot a lot; not only cause I see cows, but the snow AND sunset reminds me these occasions, when there was snow during high sommer, and the entire pack had to be moved down into the lower valleys; not alwith a easy job, as the younger calfs tend to run up to the highest peaks (8'000 feets), when havin snow.... ;-)

With that background, the reading of that photo might be pretty differently, than some urban people would do.
 
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Ray West

New member
Hi Edward,

I don't know if there is a limit on the number of photos they can select, but the ones they have selected are the best of your bunch, for what they want to present - something a bit different - I guess. The cherry blossom cloud image, sort of gets you to take a second look. Is it clouds in the background, or dense blossom? That photo is more interesting than the photos of blossom shown here, imho. The second image on this page is sort of similar, but I am looking for something at the top of the photo, the first and third are nothing special wrt needing selecting.

I think what they want to show is if you use pentax, you will take imaginative pictures, ergo you are a person with imagination - it's not the photographer, its the camera ;-) - then the purchaser associates the camera with the unique images he's seen, and the clever folk who made them.


Best wishes,

Ray
 
Thanks for the Congrats! everyone,

Hi Edward,
The cherry blossom cloud image, sort of gets you to take a second look. Is it clouds in the background, or dense blossom?

Yes! Some pictures are easier to title than others - "Blossom Clouds" played a decided trick on my eye as well (hence the name)

The second image on this page is sort of similar, but I am looking for something at the top of the photo, the first and third are nothing special wrt needing selecting.
Thanks for the perspective! Actually, I really like the blossom close-up (#3 here). I've had that as my wallpaper for a few weeks now. It is not quite as sharp as I'd like, and I wonder if the color balance could somehow be a bit better, but I find rest and beauty in the image. I like the transparent petals and foggy edges in the corners...

then the purchaser associates the camera with the unique images he's seen, and the clever folk who made them.
You didn't know that clever people choose Pentax? Of course you did! :)

Thanks for the feedback Ray.
 
Michael,

Thanks for the comments. I re-read the thread and found that I didn't read your post correctly the first time...

Michael Fontana said:
meanwhile a low-rated one starts to shine after a while only.....

Yes, that's an odd thing about a juried gallery: my collection of work on display but chosen by someone else.

Well, I think the jury took rather the cherry-images with a certain type of perspective....

What type of perspective do you mean? physical or interpretive?

I appreciate the cattle's shot a lot; not only cause I see cows, but the snow AND sunset reminds me these occasions

I completely disregarded the cattle image in the first sort. I did actually distribute it for friends to view because I had taken the picture on a friend's land and thought they would appreciate seeing the cows across the street.

However, people started commenting on it and so I decided it was "popular". I am still not terribly enamored with it but the snow hooks me sometimes. :)
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
Michael,
.........What type of perspective do you mean? physical or interpretive?

I completely disregarded the cattle image in the first sort. I did actually distribute it for friends to view because I had taken the picture on a friend's land and thought they would appreciate seeing the cows across the street.

However, people started commenting on it and so I decided it was "popular". I am still not terribly enamored with it but the snow hooks me sometimes. :)


I mean the visual perspective of the trees at the Pentax-site:

- one shows the "foreground"- tree at the center of the image, while the're two lines of trees rather at the border..

- meanwhile the second image is somehow a inversion: no trees at the center (just the boxes) and two symmetrical tree lines at the border...

Personally, I find the first more interesting, as the cam's position wasn't orientated strictly at the tree-lines, sort of "disturbed" symmetrie, and the eye takes a moment, to get it.

As for the cattle: I used it just as a example for subjectiveness, as parth of a personal biography.
 

Jeff Donovan

New member
Edward,

If the judges were Japanese, they have been looking for the most asthetically pleasing sakura (cherry blossom) picture their entire lives and have probably seen millions of them. Yours would almost have to be transcendent to gain their attention.

The ones they picked all seemed to illustrate certain things. The field and trees had a deep depth of field the barn had a great monochrome/color mix, etc.

Just an amateur's take, I'd have trouble picking the six best and then being able to tell you why :)
 
Edward,

If the judges were Japanese, they have been looking for the most asthetically pleasing sakura (cherry blossom) picture their entire lives and have probably seen millions of them.

Good point! I hadn't thought of it this way.

I'm not sure what the make up of the judging panel was when these were submitted or who is on the final judging panel now. However, recently the screening process was opened up to the gallery artist community and any artist in the gallery can vote on the images being submitted.

The ones they picked all seemed to illustrate certain things. The field and trees had a deep depth of field the barn had a great monochrome/color mix, etc.

I'm still refining how I screen my own images. Feedback from others is important so thanks. Also, being able to critique other gallery submissions has been helpful too. The process helps me seperate out my thoughts about "a good photograph" and my own sentimental attachments to my own photographs.
 
Hi Rodney,

I am no longer using a Pentax - I switched to Nikon - I could not resist the D300, plus I had a bunch of old lenses for it from my film days!

However, I might remember a few things, depending, and hopefully there are others here that still use Pentax.

Feel free to ask questions though. Besides, sometimes the solution is not a specific setting on your camera, but something that could apply to any camera.
 

Steve Robinson

New member
Congrats on the accepted images.. I have a couple on PPG also. Consider that this is a showcase for Pentax and they'll want the very best. Sometimes it's difficult to determine why certain images are either accepted or rejected. I have many more rejects than accepted images. As 'artists' we can judge each others work so there is some subjectivity as stated above. Have you done any judging yourself on PPG? It might give you some appreciation of the kind of images accepted.

Good luck on your future entries.
 
Hi Steve, yes, I have done some judging and no, it didn't help me understand :)

It was educational though. I found it enlightening to see people's best from a variety of styles.

I need to get out to Yellowstone sometime soon!

Thanks,
 

Steve Robinson

New member
Ed, I can understand your not being able to withstand the lure of the D300. I often violate the 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not covet thy brother's D300," when visiting with him. 8~D
 
Ah yes, you found me out, I defected! Don't worry, I still covet the Pentax lens line-up from time to time (and Canon's for that matter) ...
 
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