Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/gopher tortoise

Gopher tortoise

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 2 Aug 2011 at 21:47:56 (UTC)

Now protected in most locales, the gopher tortoise was once eaten widely in the southern United States

Reason: Appealing shot of a species iconic in the U.S. Southeast. Taken by a professional. (Note: picture failed to get a Commons FP because of lighting.)
Articles in which this image appears: Gopherus, Gopher tortoise, U.S. state reptiles (an FL), List of Georgia state symbols, List of Florida state symbols
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Animals/Reptiles
Creator: Tomfriedel

Support as nominator --TCO (reviews needed) 21:47, 24 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak oppose adequate illustration of the subject, but the back of the image is blurry. I'd prefer an image with everything in focus to an image with part of the main subject out of focus. Pine _{(was GreenPine)} ^talk 03:07, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak oppose. While a decent image and suitable for what it does, it is dark, has an odd crop and somewhat uninspiring. J Milburn (talk) 10:19, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- How would you prefer the crop? --TCO (reviews needed) 10:51, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Crop is less than ideal: it should have more space in the front. But the major weakness is the unnatural flash lighting. --Elekhh (talk) 12:52, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Thanks for the explanation. I don't mind not getting the gold star, especially on one like this from someone else, but I like to learn something. Do you mean the bottom or the left of picture when you say "front"? (I personally like a pretty tight crop as the thing is used for identification, but OK, also.) Also for use in articles, I tend to favor "short" aspect picture cropping as they work much better in text wrap than tall ones. For the lighting, can you describe more (just so I learn?)TCO (reviews needed) 12:59, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - Front means in front of the subject, i.e. left of the image. When we look at the subject we imagine it is moving (yes, even a turtle), and it feels squeezed when is little space in front. That it is positioned downwards also feels "negative". Furthermore, the flash light of the camera is harsh and cold, creates an unnatural feel in contrast with the background. --Elekhh (talk) 13:28, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    - Thanks.TCO (reviews needed) 14:38, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
      - Lead room JJ Harrison (talk) 07:50, 26 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The lighting is a relatively minor issue compared to the very narrow depth of field; not enough of the creature is in focus IMHO. -RunningOnBrains^(talk) 16:25, 1 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not Promoted --Makeemlighter (talk) 22:52, 2 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]