Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:FEMA - 12695 - Photograph by Barry Markowitz taken on 02-19-2005 in American Samoa.jpg
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File:FEMA - 12695 - Photograph by Barry Markowitz taken on 02-19-2005 in American Samoa.jpg, not featured[edit]
Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 7 Dec 2009 at 12:03:01 (UTC)
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Info created by Barry Markowitz, FEMA - uploaded by Multichill - nominated by Sarcastic ShockwaveLover -- Sarcastic ShockwaveLover (talk) 12:03, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
Comment Now, I know not everyone is going to agree with me (hey, what else is new? :P) but I think that this image has the potential, not only to be featured, but to be Picture of the Day, December 25th 2009. Why? Well, in the past, we've only ever had one christmas themed image for POTD, and that was more of celebrations during Christmas than the event itself. So I decided that I'd try and get a festive FP for Commons. For 2 weeks I went looking through the various yuletide categories, examining hundreds of images of lights, decorations, presents, food, people and trees, seeking out the biggest and best for Christmas day. I found many grand and expansive images, but it seemed as if each of them had been specially crafted to look great in thumbnail, but horrible at full size. Onward and upward I pressed, discarding 12Mpx images left and right, determined to bring home the perfect picture. I had tried every search term I could think of, and had almost given up, when at the bottom of the screen, I spotted a tree. Not a large tree, not a tree draped with lights and streamers, in a city square or surrounded by rosy faced children; but a small tree, decked with simple red bows, perched atop an errant boulder, with a somewhat elderly gentleman holding it steady. Having already convinced myself that my search had been fruitless, I nonetheless clicked on the link, idle curiosity and utter exhaustion piling atop one another to see just why this man looked so proud of what was a very small and obviously weathered and threadbare plastic Christmas tree. "What possible reason" thought I, "could someone have for being happy with that scrawny thing?" It was then that I happened to glance at the caption. That tree, that small, weathered tree had been sucked out with the storm surge of en:Cyclone Olaf, a Category 5 cyclone that struck American Samoa in February 2005. Reading the article, I realised that the gentleman in the picture, Ioasa To'o, was from Tau Island, the hardest hit area by the storm. This is a man who quite possibly lost most of his worldly possessions, had certainly seen friends have all they owned ruined, and had his home island devastated. It was then that I realised I had found what I had been searching for. This was what the spirit of Christmas is about. Not gifts, or carols or lights, not even about trees. What this photo says to me is 'hope'. Even amongst disaster, the true spirit of Christmas, embodied in this tiny, unassuming tree, shines through. Just this once, I'm ignoring quality all together. For a picture like this, I wouldn't care if it was 100 pixels by 400 pixels. Wherever you may be, a Merry Christmas to you all. May it be as insightful as mine has been.
Support -- Sarcastic ShockwaveLover (talk) 12:03, 28 November 2009 (UTC)- Support Ok, ok you've persuaded me :) Personally, I don't care much about the "spirit of Christmas", but this picture has a story, so I don't mind not so good quality. I'm not sure about the tilt, though. The tree maybe looks better fully vertical, but still... --Lošmi (talk) 02:52, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
Oppose Yea, it could be POTD, but not featured. Too much compressed and too much contrast. —kallerna™ 14:02, 29 November 2009 (UTC)- Oppose Agree with kallerna. /Daniel78 (talk) 16:04, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
- Oppose per kallerna, too dark foreground --Leafnode✉ 18:58, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
- Oppose Per Kallerna --Cesco77 (talk) 09:43, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
- Oppose Well, I love themed POTD, and I love this pic, because of the composition and because of the history of the subject, also sometimes I can support a low quality image because of its history, but I will not in this case. The quality is too low, and every day in the year is an "holy-day" in some cultures or religions, western christmas IMHO is not better than the National Women's Day or the Tu Bishvat. And I oppose to not featured POTD, if we have a featured picture for christmas I will support for 25 of December, but if we have not, let's try to found one for the next year... --Phyrexian (talk) 17:11, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
- Let's try to use this year's Christmas to make a few FPs for 2010, -11, -12, etc. :) Wolf (talk) 12:59, 3 December 2009 (UTC) PS The article on Tu Bishvat says it's a minor holiday, so yes, Christmas is "better" in the sense that it's a major holiday, like the Yom Kippur rather.
Confirmed results:
Result: 2 support, 5 oppose, 0 neutral → not featured. /George Chernilevsky talk 16:14, 7 December 2009 (UTC)
