liya

Thank you! very kind of you to say :)
I enter challenges all the time for fun and am never really bothered about the dodgy voting but in this challenge it was sooooo obvious - have to look no further than the second 1st place entry its a bit shocking ( not to mention pathetic and embarrassing ) how people cheat in a contest that has no prize other than personal pride...

wow, I didn't realise this photo was so bad to receive majority of .5 star votes - will try harder next time...

referring to the 2nd 1st place entry...

Funny thing : the winning photo has just as many 5's as my entry (#26) has .5's. Crazy coincidence ! Congrats to the winner, excellent work!!

Thanks for your article Casey. I recently launched my business and definitely lack in Step 3. I don't really know what I am doing wrong, but on average I only manage to book 1 out of 5 inquiries I receive via my site. I always wondered if that was normal or if I am just not responding properly to potential clients. I try not to sound too pushy or desperate, but say something like " thank you for your message. I'd love to book you in for a shoot. Here is when I am available. Here are the location options. Here is the price ( if they ask ). Look forward to hearing back."
am I missing something?
www.dumplingsphotography.com

Michael, Thank you for the article. While I don't agree with the part about professionals shooting a crop sensor camera ( I think a full frame sensor delivers a lot more depth unless you are a true photoshop artist and are willing to put in many many more hours into post to achive that ff look ). I think your images are stunning. I really enjoyed looking through your work on your site, especially the engagement/romatic couples photos. they are truly truly stunning!
I regret that I dont live anywhere close to you otherwise I would definitely hire you as our family photographer as well as someone I'd love to learn from.
-Liya (www.dumplingsphotography.com )

:) thanks!
it was so much fun!! a really amazing experience, esp with the team USA win!!

i think this is a beautiful shot!

You have missed my point. Its perfectly understandible that this challenge would not be appropriate for kids, my issue was being made to feel like I'd done something wrong - being dq-ed + snide remark - whereas its incumbent upon the host to set the tone of the challenge by specifying no kids in the rules, instead of using the title of a popular song that actually DOES make light/joke about being sexy.

I submitted a light hearted photo of my kid after NOT seeing anything mentioned in rules to the contrary. My entry was DQ-ed with the comment " children don't belong in this challenge!!" .
this tone was a bit snide. I think if children so clearly don't belong then it should be stated in the rules... I checked the other entries before submitting mine and saw a handful of kid photos, a camel, a seal, a few dogs and some ducks ... so clearly I am not the only one so dense as to not "get it".

is this bw?

love love love this photo! beautiful

this is a terrific shot, shame its so underexposed. A bit of pp and it will be A++ for me

this is super cute! I love everything about this shot: color, expression, etc

This photo would be really great for me if the knee+foot in the left edge was cloned out.

Thanks Jay :) no stiff upper lip here

same here. I was really dissapointed with some of the half and 1 stars i got on my image ( came in 37). Its one of my faves.

I think its a beautiful shot and has great colors! IN a landscape contest I imagine I would give this image 2.5 stars as is. My favorite part here is the beautiful sky and clouds, so to improve I would crop the bottom rocks which are a bit boring and emphasize the sky as the main focus.
Another idea, since I like the little path on the right, would be to make this a vertical crop ( which probably wouldn't have worked for the landscape challenge ) or just the right side. that way you include the path, the clouds/sky and the hikers and remove the less exciting bits.

Thanks Patty. I really appreciate your feedback. I am going to dig up the raw version of this and play with it at home. hopefully will be able to recover some of the sky and the mountains on the left side. As is you are right in that the left side of the image is useless, although i did like the way the power lines gently slope into the edge of the frame.

I think its a good shot and with some minor cropping and exposure adjustments it will be great.
I would remove of some water from the bottom and bring up the blacks ( lighten) a bit on the left edge. I would also increase the vibrance or saturation as well as clarity/contrast a bit to make the gorgeous colors pop.