I was so sure this image was good enough to make the first cut in a major photography competition. I made sure I met the criteria of the competition. Explained briefly why it was call paddling pensioner (a 70 year old lady on a board). But it failed to get to first base. And more frustrating some truly terrible images, blurred awkward snapshot images did get into the finally 230. Don't get me wrong I could clearly see some other excellent final contenders. But why did I fail! Well the image I know is solid I believed it said what I wanted, that as you could not identify the persons age so then could you not define them by their age! But it losses out on one important thing that the others had (even the shockers). The central subject couldn't be identified and didn't connect with the viewer in the way i intended. It just looked like a sunrise image. I could have done a more personal shot if I had thought about it at the time, but I didn’t. I was thinking landscape with a human in it, not the person in the landscape. So one important lesson for the future has been to not be so sure that what you can see is plain or easy for others to see. The image has to draw the viewer to the same conclusion, look them in the eye and speak at that personal level, like we all should do in real life as well.