Watching over them

Please comment.

Ali, You marked the field NOT MANIPULATED, but I think it is made from 2 separate images. One of the reasons I beleive so is the different shadows. Am I right? cheers Jana

F22 with the use of flash makes this look like two shots, but if you look enlarge the shot you'll see that the shadow under the bird's tail is caused by the flash, because the bird was in the shadow of a big kiosk. This shot was taken from Santa Monica pier.

Ali, this is an extremely touching photo. War always seems to be so far away until something brings it home such as this image. WELL CAPTURED and thanks for sharing.

Winner or .... ?
Real vision of war....
Very nice shot, Very.
Best Regards

Superb, Ali. Congrats!!!

Amazing

oh, what is this? so many Deads!?!!??! Oh, war time of the 21st Century :( :(

 

too sad :(

 

Biliana

Peace always!.

Very poignant image!

Message strong and very sad.

Great message.

Excellent pix!!

Thank you to all for your comments and kind words.

Great shot.Amazing.7/7

Great photo

I think the pigeon is too dark, the image lacking in contrast, and the background is out of focus, but not enough to make it artistically interesting, just to make it distracting.

Below these flags they lie and wait...and all is silent

for men to come and bury them deep...and all is silent

Eyes are dry that once had wept, voices still and hearts that no longer beat,

Hopes,plans all snuffed out, now alone, cold, but not forgotten..and all is silent.

 

The Fallen, May they rest in Peace!

Ali,

 

Very powerful image. I hope this pigeon doesn't have to bare witness to many more scenes like this.

Simply a great image Ali! congrats and keep shooting!

Ali Yousefi -

Very rarely do I ever have anything negative to say about anyone's image, however using our honored dead as a piece of Art is morally wrong.

 

If it were a journalistic image, I would I would have a different opinion, however I think this image is not art at all, but more over a bad attempt to create an emotional response at the expense of those who have honorably served my country.

 

Add to this, I might be wrong, but it looks as though the pigeon has been photoshopped into the image.

 

R. Preston

USMC

Dear Robert,

There is nothing wrong with being the so called bad guy, I've been the bad guy myself many times, but I took my time and analyzed the photo I was about to comment on both professionally and emotionally.

I think you neither looked at this image professionally, nor did you take time to see the group of the photos taken at the same time, and acted emotionally.

First of all, I had no intention of using this image as a piece of Art, it was simply a shot taken while I was walking the Santa Monica Pier.  

I myself was surprized of the emotional response this image received, and am glad it touched so many people the way it did. 

I've explained this in the past as well, if you look at the image closely, you'll see the use of flash by the shadow it created under the bird's tail.  The fact that the bird is in focus and the background is Not, is proof that this image is not photoshoped.  Even though I used a very small aperture to give it as much depth of field, the background is still out of focus, and more proof the image is untouched.