Sonoran Love Photo Evaluation

Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to help evaluate the fine-art qualities of the images below.

Before I forget: Please view the images on a computer monitor, as opposed to a small telephone screen.

My goal with my new SonoranLove.com website is not to display and offer for sale ‘as shot’ photos, but to display images that have more of a fine art appeal. I take an ‘as shot’ photo and then I manipulate it using proprietary software to make it an image that is unique to my style and my passion for plants and scenes of the Sonoran Desert.

You have been provided an evaluation sheet to tally your preferences in the groupings of photos. That tally sheet is where you will let me know your favorites, and not-so favorites. For my initial debut of SonoranLove.com, I will be limited to no more than 50 images, with just a small number of those initially displayed. That number will grow over time. Starting with a relatively small number of photos will allow my website managers to trickle out new photos with a lot of social-media fanfare. Their job is to drive collectors and lovers of the Sonoran Desert to my website using social media…primarily Instagram and Facebook.

CATEGORIES: Below, you will find photos grouped into the categories of:

Barrel Cactus
Beavertail Cactus
Boulder Piles [some with cacti and some without]
Floral
Just Thorns [thorns are the emphasis here]
Other Cacti
Other Things [maybe a bit of whimsy here]
Saguaro Cactus
Scenic
TECHNIQUES: There is a final and maybe a seemingly unusual category called “Techniques”. In this grouping, you will see different versions of the same basic photo as taken in the field…and most of those images you probably saw within their stand-alone category. The idea is to show you several image treatments of the same basic image so that you can tell me which treatments are enjoyable and which ones are not…a ranking helps me to understand what I can ‘get away with’ in my image manipulations. Frankly, it is hard for me to evaluate those different manipulations paired with various images, as I like them enough to put them before you in the first place. What I am looking for is your critical eye as a potential purchaser of fine-art photos from my website. You are my beloved guineapig who tells me, “I like this one!” for some photos and “What were you thinking?!” for others.

GALLERIES: All of the photos are in ‘galleries’ where you click on the first image in a gallery grouping and then either use your arrow keys to advance to the next image, or by clicking the next-photo ‘>’ icon along the right edge of your screen with your mouse. The way a gallery works is that you can arrow or click your way within a gallery for eternity and it will cycle through the photos forever, until you click on the “X” at top-right of the screen. Thus, in addition to the Title of an image, you will see the warning “<END>” appended to the Title of the last photo in a gallery. NOTE: While in a Gallery, you can only see the title of an image by hovering your mouse pointer over the image. And, you can only click and use arrow keys if you are viewing the images on a computer monitor, rather than your itsy, bitsy cellphone. So, please use your desktop or laptop computer.

COMMENTS: For each category’s gallery of photos, you will have the opportunity to offer comments. For instance, you might say, “Image X would really work better for me if it were cropped in a square format”. Or, maybe you would suggest cropping to improve composition in some other way. For instance, if a horizon is not horizontal, or a cactus is not aligned vertically to your liking, or you think that a ‘portrait’ (vertical) presentation would be better than a ‘landscape’ (horizontal) presentation…so please comment as you feel moved to do so. And, black and white versions of each image are not only a possibility, but my plan for my website. If you see a photo that you feel would really come across well as a black and white image, please say so. You are welcome to say, “This one is my favorite!!!” over and over…or even, “I suggest that no one ever see this image on your website!!!” a few times. There are a couple of things on which I would specifically love to have your Comments:

TITLES: I have a theory that the title of an image in a photo contest (for instance) might be a determining factor in the success of a photo…it’s just a feeling from reviewing the results of many contests, where a catchy title seems to amplify a photo’s success. So, if a particular image sings its title out to you, then please make a note of that in the COMMENTS part of the evaluation sheet. And, I hope that you will readily see that when I mention the title of an image that you see when you hover over an image with your mouse pointer…that is not really a true image title.
MERCHANDISE: Another sort of comment is where you think to yourself, “This one would make a great puzzle!…or it would be great featured on a tote bag!” Just to the right of the Comment line is a place to put such Merchandising epiphanies.

A PRELIMINARY LOOK: I’m thinking that as part of your workflow, it would be beneficial to go ahead and cycle through a gallery of photos before even beginning the actual written-down evaluation. This gets you familiar with what you will be seeing and what seems to stand out to you before putting pen to paper, and it may be of benefit. You will probably see an image or two that you just know will get a Rating of 1…and then as you go through, you will have a better idea of other ratings.

Now, please grab your tally sheets for a moment…

And as you look at the Evaluation Sheets, please carefully read the instructions at the beginning of each of the two main sections.

RATING: The first section is for RATING images with a 1 thru 5 rating within each Category. Can every photo in a Category have the same rating? Yes, they can…whether it is a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 rating. A Rating of 1 indicates that you believe that image would be attractive to buyers. Multiple images can have the same Rating, or not. So, please Rate each image within a Category…this is a reflection of your gut feeling for an image…whether you feel that others will moved by it as a fine-art piece, or not. Rating Bottom line: you are not Rating one image against another so much as you are rating each image’s attractiveness to the viewer, who is a potential buyer.
RANKING: he second section is for RANKING of images within Groupings. This is where you can indicate that ImageX is your favorite, and then next is ImageY, and then ImageZ, etc. Each image within a Grouping comes from the same base image which has then been manipulated by me to achieve that ‘look’ that you will see. So, for RANKING, a ranking of 1 is your favorite of the Grouping…a ranking of 2 is your second favorite, etc,. I would not go beyond the Ranking of your top 2 or 3 favorites…that is the essence of what I’m looking for from you. Whether you really, really care for the base image or not, please Rank the particular look applied to that base image. Ranking Bottom Line: You are now comparing one image’s ‘look’ against others, and you are putting just a few of them in a Rank order.

RATING OF IMAGES

BARREL CACTUS

Barrel-1

Barrel-2

Barrel-3

Barrel-4

Barrel-5

Barrel-6

Barrel-7

Barrel-8

Barrel-9

Barrel-10

Barrel-12

Barrel-13

Barrel-14

Barrel-15

Barrel-16

Barrel-17

Barrel-18

Barrel-19

Barrel-20

Barrel-21

Barrel-22

Barrel-23 <END>

BEAVERTAIL CACTUS

Beavertail-1

Beavertail-2 Puzzle Candidate

Beavertail-3

Beavertail-4 <END>

BOULDER PILES

Boulders-1

Boulders-2

Boulders-3

Boulders-4

Boulders-5

Boulders-6

Boulders-7

Boulders-8

Boulders-9

Boulders-10

Boulders-11

Boulders-12 <END>

FLORAL

Floral-1

Floral-2

Floral-3

Floral-4

Floral-5

Floral-6

Floral-7

Floral-8

Floral-9

JUST THORNS

Thorns-1

Thorns-2

Thorns-3

Thorns-4

Thorns-5

Thorns-6

Thorns-7

Thorns-8

Thorns-9

Thorns-10

Thorns-11

Thorns-12

Thorns-13

Thorns-14

Thorns-15

Thorns-16

Thorns-17

Thorns-18

Thorns-19

Thorns-20

Thorns-21

Thorns-22

Thorns-23

Thorns-24

Thorns-25

Thorns-26

Thorns-27

Thorns-28

Thorns-29

Thorns-30

Thorns-31

Thorns-32

Thorns-33

Thorns-34

Thorns-35

Thorns-36

Thorns-37

Thorns-38

OTHER CACTI

OtherCacti-1

OtherCacti-2

OtherCacti-3

OtherCacti-4

OtherCacti-5

OtherCacti-6

OtherCacti-7

OtherCacti-8

OtherCacti-9

OtherCacti-10

OtherCacti-11

OtherCacti-12

OtherCacti-13

OtherCacti-14

OtherCacti-15

OtherCacti-16

OtherCacti-17 [A very rare 'Tongue' cactus]

OtherCacti-18

OtherCacti-19

OtherCacti-20

OtherCacti-21

OtherCacti-22

OtherCacti-23

OtherCacti-24

OtherCacti-25

OtherCacti-26 <END>

OTHER THINGS

OtherThings-1

OtherThings-2

OtherThings-3

OtherThings-4 [Bob's Boulder Burger]

OtherThings-5

OtherThings-6

OtherThings-7

OtherThings-8 <END>

SAGUARO CACTUS

Saguaro-1

Saguaro-2

Saguaro-3

Saguaro-4

Saguaro-5

Saguaro-6

Saguaro-7

Saguaro-8

Saguaro-9

Saguaro-10

Saguaro-11

Saguaro-12

Saguaro-13

Saguaro-14

Saguaro-15

Saguaro-16

Saguaro-17

Saguaro-18

Saguaro-19

Saguaro-20

Saguaro-21

Saguaro-22

Saguaro-23

Saguaro-24

Saguaro-25

Saguaro-26

Saguaro-27

Saguaro-28

Saguaro-29

Saguaro-30

Saguaro-31

Saguaro-32

Saguaro-33

Saguaro-34

Saguaro-36

Saguaro-37

Saguaro-38

Saguaro-39 <END>

SCENIC

Scenic-1

Scenic-2

Scenic-3

Scenic-4

Scenic-5

Scenic-6

Scenic-7

Scenic-8

Scenic-9

Scenic-10

Scenic-11

Scenic-12

Scenic-13

Scenic-14

Scenic-15

Scenic-16

Scenic-17

Scenic-18

Scenic-19

Scenic-20

Scenic-21 <END>

TECHNIQUE, and your Ranking of images

You will see the same basic image in each grouping, but each has a number of “looks” or “manipulations” applied that make them a bit different. Whether you really, really care for the base image or not, please Rank the particular look applied to that base image. At this point, you have probably seen each image already in its Category view, and you have hopefully given it your 1 thru 5 Rating.

Group #1

In this grouping there are 6 images. As it is difficult to get a close look to see their finite differences, I have included an enlarged version of each image following the full-size image.