Choosing the Photo of the Day from the many photos submitted each day is not an easy task.  On average there are between 15 and 20 shots sent in, most of which are very good.  While I am not a professional photography critic, I have been taking photographs most of my adult life starting, as a lot of us did, in high school.   Since then I have taken several thousand pictures of everything from the kids to bugs, flowers, and pets.  So how is the Photo of the Day chosen?  There are a few basic things I look for in the photo:

 1.  Interesting Subject.  Pets, flowers, kids, landscapes, people, and animals make interesting subjects.  But all photos of these subjects are not created equally.  For example, a shot of the 10 year old playing soccer with his friends might be a great shot to the grand parents, but would be un-remarkable to the rest of us unless there is something that draws us into the photo.

 2. Good Composition.  Is Uncle George’s left arm cut out of the photo?  Is the eye drawn smoothly from one part of the photo to another?  Are there distracting parts to the photograph?  I think you get the idea.  Cropping is ok.  Cloning an extra palm tree into the scene is not ok.  This is not a digital art site.

 3. Good Lighting.  This includes exposure, color, contrast, saturation etc.  This is where a good photo-editing program such as Photoshop comes in handy.  It’s ok to adjust these parameters as long as nothing is fundamentally changed in the photo.  For example, if the green frog is changed to blue, that is a fundamental change.  If the background is blurred to draw attention to the kitten, that is a fundamental change and not ok.   If the shine on Uncle George’s bald head is softened to look less like a light-house, that’s ok.  If Aunt Ethel’s red-eye is removed that’s ok unless Aunt Ethel has red eyes to begin with.  Digital cameras have a tendency to over-saturate colors.  Most of the time this is ok.

4.  Variety.  There is an effort made to keep a variety of photographic subjects on the site.  If ten lady bugs are sent in on ten consecutive days, most likely you will only see one no matter how good the last nine are.  But for now, all photos submitted are kept on file.  Each photo is considered many times for photo of the day.

             Remember too that once you have had a photo chosen as photo of the day, you will probably not be eligible again until the next month.   As long as there are good photos being submitted, only one photo of the day per month per photographer will be used no matter how great your second and third photo is.  For this reason, send in your best shots first! 

             I realize most my method is very subjective but that is the only way I know how to pick the photos.   I maintain the site as a hobby because I love digital photography and greatly enjoy seeing the photographs of others.  At some time in the future when the traffic on the site increases, I may solicit sponsors that can provide prizes for photo of the month.  Until then, the only gift is seeing the excellent photos on display each day!