Natural light in the rain, under an umbrella. Saw her reach and fired. Would have loved a little more balloon, but thought the expression made up for it. Basic lighting and contrast adjustments, and sharpening only.
Statistics
Place: 9 out of 42 Avg (all users): 5.7957 Avg (commenters): 5.1667 Avg (participants): 5.6786 Avg (non-participants): 5.8462 Views since voting: 923 Views during voting: 166 Votes: 93 Comments: 13 Favorites: 1 (view)
Thanks for the comments and critique. There was absolutely nothing planned about this photo other than the fact that every Saturday I take my camera to the Easton Farmers' Market. This was taken while rushing back to the coffee shop where I was having brunch with my wife after realizing that I hadn't put enough $$ in the meter. Taken one handed while holding a golf umbrella with the other (I was in the rain, they were under a canopy) there was nothing posed about this. No idea who the child is, but I'd asked her Mom if I could take photos of the family playing "tomato putt-putt" earlier. I agree with the comments about the Mom's hand being distracting, but what can you do? Thankful it did as well as it did.
I love the color and brightness in this image and the young one is really adorable.
Compositionally, I like everything except the adult's hand, which I find a bit distracting. But the red jacket does define the environment of the photo, and I love the red. Were this a 'posed' photo having the adult hand just a bit lower than the girl's might have been ideal, but as a spontaneous shot, I think the composition works. I love all the bright white, blue, pinks, and greens in your background. Even with all that colors your subject still really pops. I think all those colors made me associate even more happiness to the image than if it had just been the little girl looking at balloons. So great choice for location IMHO. I suppose I do agree with those commenters who said they would have like to see more balloon in the 'balloon' challenge. But I'm not sure with little ones there is all the time in the world to setup shoot, recompose, etc. Your score is great - and I hope the parent(s) of the little one are thrilled with your photo. (Or if she's yours, that you love it.)
Technically I cannot see any shortcomings to your image. The girl is wonderfully sharp, and the contrast and brightness of the image are great. The balloons aren't quite as sharp, and maybe for the challenge having sharp balloons would have struck some as more pleasing, but I think the focus of your shot right at the girl is perfect.
Overall I think this is a wonderful image. Great job.
Julee
Congrats on the top ten finish.
I was one of your 8's.
It's one of those feel good images, like you said in your notes a bit more ballon would have helped. Also that out of focus arm is a bit distracting.
Really like this image Jake. Her expression is lovely and I like the way those balloons are in the top-left of the image (although some people might have down voted it for that reason).
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