PAW stands for Photo a Week. So, you submit a photo every week, more or less. No one is counting. If you miss a week, you don't get kicked out or anything. If you post more than one a week, well, I guess that's fine, too (although if you, like, do it every day, someone may take you to task).
For instance, I posted a PAW tonight, only 6 days after my last one. I doubt anyone will notice.
There are no prizes. There's no plan to publish or in any way compile them. Those of us who feel they want to, simply look at them, and comment (again, if we want to).
Sometimes one gets many comments, sometimes not. Don't read a lot into it one way or the other.
Okay, your duck photo:
One thing you have to know, is that there are some amazing wildlife photographers on this list. Guys who make their living at it. Guys who, regardless of whether they're pros, just really know what they're doing, and blow pretty much everyone else out of the water - even guys who shoot with Canons and Nikons, and we all know that those cameras take way better pix than Pentaxes <vbg>.
Unfortunately, that means that "ordinary" wildlife photos look, well, pretty ordinary compared to what we're used to seeing.
I'd say yours is an ordinary shot, of an ordinary bird. Not a bad shot, just nothing to make it stand out. It's just "there", without a lot to say, IMHO. I think what you may want to do is go to the site of a wildlife photographer, and look at what they do, figure out how they do it, and try to emulate it (and then work it into your own style). Here's the bird page of one of our best wildlife guys, Mark Cassino (there are many other really good ones here, but none better than Mark, IMHO):
http://www.markcassino.com/galleries/birds/birds.htm
Look through the gallery, and see what he's done with birds. How they stand out from their backgrounds. How freaking sharp the birds are. How they're doing interesting things, or how their bodies are in interesting positions.
Look at what he's doing with composition and lighting.
See what I mean?
Now, again, I'm not saying that your duck shot is a bad one. But, one of the reasons we post on PAW is to get reactions from others, with a view to improving your work, and learning from others. I'm not trying to be harsh, but rather, helpful, so I hope that you accept this in the spirit in which it's intended.
regards, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: "Shawn K." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: PAW - Some duck in the park Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 19:19:43 -0400
Here, here it is, the great duck shot. WOOooo... meh. Well, it's just your
average run of the mill duck in the grass, but it was taken with a not so
average SMC Takumar 200/4 that just beguiles me! Yes I love it, I wish, oh
how do I wish that Pentax had made these lenses in the K mount...
http://www.bluehorizon3d.com/Photos/nice/duck1s.jpg
Let me know what you think!
By the way, what is this PAW thing? Can I submit a PAW at any time? Is it some kind of collection of images being assembled? I've been hoping for clues as to the nature of the PAW but haven't been paying close enough attention apparently.
-Shawn
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