Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Rock dove (Columba livia) walking on place de la Bourse, Brussels, Belgium (DSCF4422).jpg

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Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 28 Nov 2018 at 20:54:48 (UTC)
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Rock dove on Place de la Bourse, BE
  •  Comment Those people are part of what lead me to nominate this picture. They are omnipresent in the pigeon's life and practically blind to the pigeon's existence, yet these people are small and insignificant blurs in the background like the birds we normally clone out of pictures. In my opinion they are an important part of the change of perspective. --Trougnouf (talk) 18:06, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Comment - They're city birds. Just like homeless people, it's hard for them to keep clean. But it's not for lack of trying. I observe pigeons a lot because they roost across from my bathroom, and they spend a lot of time grooming themselves and their partners. On the other hand, they crap everywhere, including in their nests, so that's pretty dirty. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:15, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  • Life in the cities is hard for many species, rats and cockroaches included. But try to nominate a dirty flower here, even if there are excellent reasons for this flower to be ugly (pollution, car gaz, poor light, fuel oil, etc.), the emotion won't come. There's no poetry in this pigeon on asphalt, in my eyes. Taking pictures of people is difficult, since humans are conscious, while no personality right is needed with an animal. Nevertheless not any photograph of homeless people is good, just because "life is hard" for them, too. The picture has to show something, either an environment, a situation, a moving facial expression, a particular action, etc. If there's nothing else than a body, the subject is too ordinary -- Basile Morin (talk) 05:17, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose per Basile --Uoaei1 (talk) 10:23, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Neutral I see this as an environmental portrait, and I think there are a lot of things that this picture does right. On the technical level, the subject is sharp and clearly identified, it stands out against the background, there's plenty of lead room in the direction it's walking, the lighting is appropriate with a niche little catchlight. The background is blurry enough for it not to be disturbing, but still identifiable as some kind of street scene.
On the story telling level, this is the attempt to take the viewer into the world of a street pigeon; and it mostly succeeds at that. The casual tourist might have shot this bird (if at all) from above, but Trougnouf did the right thing by going down to almost eye level. Great! Of course, in the world of city pigeons the environment mainly consists of human-made structures, cars and people, so it is very fitting that these make up the background here instead of the greenery we normally see in bird portraits. Love it!
So why am I not going for support then? Well, first I find the pose of the bird a bit awkward. It seems to be somewhere in-between sitting and walking, or maybe between two steps. Second, I think an even lower angle with the camera at or below the bird's eye level could have had a much more immersive effect. Right now, we're close to the bird's world, but we haven't really entered it yet, as we're still slightly looking down. We're still an observer, not part of its world. So close, but not quite there … --El Grafo (talk) 10:54, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Cart is right, forget the lower angle … --El Grafo (talk) 12:01, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
You don't agree that the pigeon is clearly walking? It has picked its left foot up a bit as part of its step. I watch pigeons walking all the time. Many of them are not quite as close to the ground - this one is not only bedraggled, perhaps it is a bit cautious in this crowded place, I'm not sure. But it's definitely walking. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 12:07, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It's more about the position of the head, which looks a bit … neckless. I know they retract and extend their neck when they walk, so I guess it is indeed walking. But it still looks strange to me compared to this … --El Grafo (talk) 13:24, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm... No neck, hunched, heavy gait, scruffy-looking, big body... I'm gonna call that bird "Winston". ;) --Cart (talk) 20:50, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support I agree with the first part of El Grafo's reasoning, but not the second part. Any lower angle would not have isolated the bird against the background. A low angle almost inevitable makes the background interfere with a small subject. Anyway, it's not a pretty picture, in fact it's downright ugly, but it is interesting, well composed and not the kind of bird pic we usually get here, that will make a photo go a long way. Such photos also have a place at FP IMO. --Cart (talk) 11:24, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose per Basile--Ermell (talk) 23:06, 20 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Oppose Given the fairly low resolution and the fact that the scene is pretty ordinary, I'm not seeing the big wow factor here.--Peulle (talk) 07:48, 21 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Hoping not to insult any owner or relatives of 'Winston' I'd call it a beautiful picture of an ugly bird. If he were standing on his left foot and shifting his impetus towards the center of the picture, it would b a harmonic move, but I think even this missing elegance perfectly fits the not-beeing-a-lovely-white-dove. --PtrQs (talk) 01:13, 26 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 5 support, 5 oppose, 1 neutral → not featured. /--Basile Morin (talk) 01:51, 29 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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