I know how you feel as i myself had had many rejections from this group. BUT, as the group name suggests this is not going to be an easy group. i asked a few photographers that i know the same question regrding some of my Rejects, this was what the said to me. never get wrapped up in your own photo’s, they are just pictures to other people. who have to make up thier own mind. Accept that people may view your photo differently to the way that you see it. ask yourself ’ when i took the photo, what was i trying to achieve, & did i succeed ?
ok so the added difficulty with this group is the lack of feedback for rejections, but i suppose they must get a lot of images too look at. so that can be a problem.
So try this & its not easy. reply to this post saying how good your image is & why it is so special compared to the ones that are accepted currently. As i said not an easy thing to do, but you may get some useful but hard to take feedback.
to clear my name, i had only 1 accepted into this group some time ago, & i think its been removed now. so im no great photographer myself.
cheers Neil

Your last comment was very funny Nadine, I fought for an Image yesterday that was rejected, just trying to figure out the rhyme or reason. When I put my images out in front of the camera club I have in my mind a number I think they are going to come up with just to see if Im seeing what they are seeing. Im usualy right on. We have some very stiff competion in the group i belong to. They are always up for the challenge. I agree with Neil ask yourself what was I trying to achive and did I succeed. Others may not see it that way. But most will! PS I submitted an image today and it was accepted.
Patrick Flood

Hi Victoria – sorry about the delay. I’ve been away a few days.

I didn’t reject either of these, so I won’t be able to say the actual reason.

The jockey, I did see in the queue and looked at it a few times. I like it – particularly the background motion from the panning. The thing that stopped me from accepting it right away was that I couldn’t really find a sharp point to focus on. The yellow hat seems the sharpest bit of the photo. As difficult as this must have been to shoot (the speed is pretty obvious in the photo) when viewing a panned photo I like to have the main subject pretty well in focus. Since I didn’t remove it from the queue, the host who did will have to tell you why.

The other one (the bench), I don’t know – I don’t remember seeing this one in the queue. The shrubs seem a little oversharpened which might be from RB’s display optimization rather than actually being oversharpened. I rather like it, although the bit on the upper right (the fence) is a distraction for me. Again, the host who removed this will have to say.

Thank you Gracey and Mark. I appreciate the reply and explanation. I have had countless rejections, one accepted, but only recently disheartened because I am curious how the candid snapshots have gotten into the group, but oh well. I will continue trying regardless. I just know the strict standards that group members are held to. It’s a challenge.

As for the bench shot, there was no sharpening done on it… must be Redbubble. It was a bit bright out when I took the photo and they were quite volumous thorn bushes on either side of the bench. The fence… meh… I’m a horseback rider and equine lover and fell in love with the white fences of Kentucky horse pastures so I guess I’m partial to it. lol.

I appreciate the constructive criticism on the racehorse shot, too. This was my first attempt at shooting horse racing. It was a rather overcast/rainy day, so it was tough. They were moving fast and I couldn’t have the shutter speed as fast I would have liked anyway so I compensated by trying to pan. Hopefully next time I get to see a race I’ll have better conditions and I’ll try a shot like this again.

Thank you hosts once again for your help.