In 1904 O.Henry wrote his novel "Cabbages and Kings", based on the collection of 8 short stories (//dailylit.com/books/cabbages-and-kings). I read this beautiful, witty and sarcastic book as a teenager back in Soviet Union. :-) Loved it! Was sure that William Sydney Porter (O.Henry's real name. Thank you, Garry!) is even more famous in his own country! :-)
Thank you all for comments and time, you've spent, trying to decipher my image! :-) I was truly convinced he is a classic, at least there's an annual American O. Henry Award for short stories (some of those are terrific too!).
It was really interesting experience reading all this diverse comments! Agree with the critique on the composition. Wanted to re-shoot it next day, even bought another, more photogenic cabbage, but got sick and submitted the photo as is. Now have two cabbages in the fridge, so I'm debating with myself if I want to bake a pie or may be use it in the vegetable face challenge. :-)
Thank you again for your votes!
Statistics
Place: 65 out of 86 Avg (all users): 5.3524 Avg (commenters): 4.8000 Avg (participants): 5.1395 Avg (non-participants): 5.5000 Views since voting: 519 Views during voting: 211 Votes: 105 Comments: 21 Favorites: 0
It was clever of you not to title your picture "Cabbage & Kings".
A very crisp image, dew and all. Might have benefitted form a portrait format to allude to a book cover.
7
4...I have no idea what this is inspired by. The light and texture on the cabbage is nice, and I wish the cards weren't there. They're not in or out of focus enough to not be annoying. It's just a weird little still life, but not weird enough to be interesting.
Technically that's not a novel, it's a collection of short stories.
..
Images like this upset me somewhat - it's a good image, very nicely done. But... It's not right, it doesn't meet the challenge. Not only is it not a novel, but... Dunno.. Does the image really capture the work? Or is it just a clever visual pun?
So what am I left to do? Reward the great image? Or punish the failure to follow instructions?
I suppose I'll do both, and just wish that you had chosen a novel instead of a collection of short stories.
Kings, check. Cabbage, check. Composition, workmanlike. Technicals, adequate: the lighting is decent if uninspired, the choice of shallow DOF is interesting.
Does it fit the book (which is a collection of short stories, not a novel)? Not really, except for the obvious one-on-one match with the title. But see, the thing of it is that the TITLE has nothing to do with the book either; it's a quote from Lewis Carroll ("The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things: / Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings...") that highlights the miscellaneous nature of the book itself.
Heck, what am I saying? It's clean, if unimaginative, but it doesn't especially float my boat. I'll give it a 5.
Why choose a short story writer for a "Classic Novel" topic? Visually I love the wet cabbage. Hold for topics such as "colitis cures", or "vegan card party" challenges. 5 for the cabbage.
I an one of a few that have taken on the” Comment on every vote challenge”. I will post the score I gave you then try to explain my reasons for said vote. Hopefully nothing below will be taken personally, and maybe we can both learn from it.
I’m sorry this image has little to do with what I suggested this challenge to be, a score of 3. I’ll leave it at that.
O Henry's Full House is new to me so I don't understand the cabbage (or is it a brussel sprout?), maybe that's the twist and you're being street witty ;). Nice lighting and focus on the green thing, I like this because it suggests a story, and that you understand what's there and did something with it (even though I don't have a clue). 6.
I have read very little O. Henry, so I may be missing something. Since I don't know the tie to the author, the image just looks like an oddly placed cabbage and some cards. 4
Guess you'd need to be familiar with O Henry (William Porter) for this image to make sense, which is asking a lot of the voting masses I fear. Beautifully crisp cabbage, love the detail in the leaves and waterdrops.
Had to search to get the reference. The cabbage is quite nice, but something doesn't feel right with the composition. I think it would have worked better if the kings were tucked under the cabbage more? Right now they seem too separated for the kings to be that soft. The eye sees it as two different subjects, one out of focus, instead of one composition with a shallow dof (at least that's how my eye is seeing it :) Plus the cards are bright next to the gorgeous lighting of the cabbage, it just keeps drawing the eye to something not as interesting. -5-
A collection of a small number of still life objects on a black background is boring. I don't know the reference. It might be exceedingly clever, and if I knew it, that might get you some more points. But as it is, I don't know it. Normally a boring set of objects is 2 points, but your objects are at least a little quirky and your DOF is narrow, so I'll throw in an extra point. 3
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