And thanks Chrystyne!! 40 comments before rollover. Don't expect to ever see that again.
I was so distressed about the title all during voting, because I'm one of those people who believes a title DOES matter. This was actually the first time I messed that up, and I really do believe it made a difference in the score. And then, for some reason, all my photog notes were ghosted at rollover. So, in brief:
Model: Carl Hunter (he raises chickens for their eggs). He was also the chick wrangler for this shot.
I met him a few years ago at a blessing of the animals, where he had brought several fancy chickens. Fast forward to last year, when I started doing pet portraits, and I remembered him. Turns out he lives about a mile from me! I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the shot, and when I told him, he just about fell over laughing. The only question truly was whether the chicken would cooperate...
This was my first location shoot, and in addition to schlepping all my gear there, I had to rearrange the house! I was most worried that I wouldn't be able to "direct" the chicken, but it was just a matter of patience and waiting for her to look in my direction. I had given Carl VERY strict instructions to NEVER take his eyes of me. And he did a great job of it, too!!
Regarding the overly dark right hand, yes, a flaw from not yet having developed my eye to see EVERYTHING. I've tried numerous ways of fixing it with no satisfactory result. There is simply not enough information there. But I agree with blindjustice, it sort of gives it a slightly sinister twist.
Statistics
Place: 60 out of 410 Avg (all users): 6.4850 Avg (commenters): 7.5750 Avg (participants): 6.4474 Avg (non-participants): 6.6512 Views since voting: 1404 Views during voting: 533 Votes: 233 Comments: 50 Favorites: 4 (view)
OMG my fav pix of the contest was you!! I still can't look with out laughing!
HOW in the world did you come up with this idea???? Here I thought you were the more "normal-ish" of the group... and YAY on being in the upper part of all the shots in this giant challenge!!
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.
Positives: Johanna - I love quirky portraits and you are the master of those. This is just superb. The humour, the matter-of-factness, the seemingly relaxed chicken are of course the stars, but the technicals are also compelling - the nicely diffused background, the shadow on the face and the well-preserved reflection in the table - all contribute much.
Critical stuff: Although the shadow is great on Carl's face and on the bird - I think it is perhaps a bit deep on his right hand.
Grog appreeshiates eating stile of hunter-named-carl. No hassle uv fire-making or ashes for female to clean up later. Grog has tried same, but get stepped on by mammoth after first bite.
This made me smile, good crisp focus and nice lighting (except that very dark hand.) Wish you'd given it a title, something humerous. I like chickens, lol.
I like this shot, but the more I look at it, the more I notice some strange things. Firstly, the background is a little weird, and secondly the left and is so obtrusively dark.
Other than that, a fun concept and a fairly well executed one at that. I give you an 8 for being so creative, and doing a good job of it.
For dinner I ordered duck,
but along come this bold, little cluck.
She ruffled her feathers daring me to pluck
I had to laugh for the silly exchange left me dumb-struck
As for my meal, I realized I was out of luck.
What a fun and playful portrait! You can't help but smile:-)
Not really jaw struck by the lighting in this one, in my opinion this would have appealed a bit more to me if there was more fill lighting from the left, on his right hand especially. Also the processing is a bit too "plastic" for lack of a better word, for my taste. Anyway, nice concept and still gave it a 6.
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