This is award winning?

A paratrooper removes his reserve parachute after a successful jump on to Sicily drop zone during Operation Toy Drop XII on December 7, 2009. Each year since 1998 the Fort Bragg Soldiers and Community have collected and given toys to deserving children.  (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   I've been looking back through a lot of my photos and sometimes I look at something and say to myself, "Really dude? You shot this? Why didn't you use flash? Why didn't you change your angle just a bit?" in this case I say,

"Wait...I won an award for this?"

   There are a few things that could have gone very wrong with this shot. He could have been looking up and I could have gotten a great view of his nostrils. He could have been angled slightly more towards me and I could have gotten a crotch shot. Thankfully, neither of those happened. And if they did they've long been deleted.

   Okay, so lets look at this photo technically.  The subject is the paratrooper. Is he in a point of interest? Yes, but it's his leg. What else is in a point of interest? Well his parachute covers two. Is that good? Sure, why not, it's not exactly pulling away from the subject because it's not entirely in focus, and it kind of pulls your eyes towards him. If only because it's attached to him and there are some very subtle lines you can see if you look close enough. And his elbow is in the last one. His eyes provide a leading line to his action [He's removing a safety pin which will allow him to remove his parachute harness]

What else? Oh, there's a dutch angle.

   "What's a dutch angle?"

   Basically you tilt the camera. I still suggest putting your subject in two diagonal points of interest when you do this.

   The Germans and the artists say it depicts madness, unrest, exoticism, and disorientation. I'm sure someone could argue a number of points as to why this does/doesn't work for this photo. But I certainly won't. I'm not one to argue subjectivity because it's...subjective. Rules. I like to talk about rules.

   To me he looks happy.

I know for a fact he's happy because he just earned foreign jump wings and gave a child a toy for Christmas. [www.optoydrop.net]

   What in my opinion would have made this better? Well, his face could have been in the top left point of interest. Of course, how exactly that could have been accomplished is another matter altogether, moving down and to the left would have put his head higher and to the right, but then his leg and reserve parachute would have obstructed his face. [That little green thing is in fact his back up parachute. Yes, you land on your back. A friend of mine had to pull his reserve once. He hurt his back pretty bad. Luckily he's still walking around.] 

"So, could this have been shot any better?"

   I don't know, after writing this whole post about why it works technically I guess it's a pretty good shot. Maybe if you added a sunset and a whole division of paratroopers in the skies behind him with anti-aircraft going off I would have been wow'd. I guess you can't always have everything you want. Sometimes you just have to take the shot you're given.