Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Miller recieves the Navy Cross

Miller Receives the Navy Cross
Voting period ends on 27 Jan 2011 at 03:04:02 (UTC)
 * Reason:Here we have an important moment in World War II, in the History of the United States, and to a certain extent in the Civil Rights Movement that would emerge in the US in the 1960s. On December 7, 1941, during the attack at Pearl Harbor, Mess Attendant Doris Miller distinguished himself aboard the battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48) when he manned a unmanned anti-aircraft gun and - without any prior experience in its operation - fired the weapon against the attacking Japanese until the ammunition was exhausted. For this action Miller won the Navy Cross, the first African-American to be so honored in the United States Navy. In a ceremony aboard the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), Miller's award was presented to him by then Admiral Chester Nimitz (as shown). For the historical importance of this image, I am hereby putting it forward as a Featured Picture Candidate.
 * Articles in which this image appears:Chester W. Nimitz, Doris Miller, Military history of African Americans
 * FP category for this image:Wikipedia:Featured pictures/People/Military
 * Creator:United States Navy


 * Support as nominator --TomStar81 (Talk) 03:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose The image is of poor quality and even at its barely-there resolution, isn’t sharp. It is full of dust and dirt, and the features of Miller’s face can barely be discerned even though the brightness has been punched up to the point that large areas of everyone’s uniforms are totally blown out. Greg L (talk) 04:39, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose: despite the historical importance. It needs to be worked on and then we can reconsider Booksworm Talk? 14:32, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose, Greg sums it up well. Yes, lower standards are expected of images from many years ago, but that doesn't mean we should be promoting anything and everything. J Milburn (talk) 00:13, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose Sorry, I have to oppose as per Greg and J Milburn. SMasters (talk) 11:31, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment I uploaded a bigger version from the LOC that could work with some cleanup. ~ trialsanderrors (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Notified the voters. Nautica Shad es  19:54, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Support alt, as it solves all teh problems listed above. Nergaal (talk) 03:59, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment while the alt is an improvement, it's still got serious problems - for instance, there are and black spots all over the photo. The EV is strong and the composition is good, but this needs to be restored. Nick-D (talk) 07:30, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment Whereas the Alternate has addressed all my above-cited objections regarding quality, I’m still not seeing how this image has exemplary quality based on any criteria. This picture was nominated on Martin Luther King day (U.S. time), and it is a meritorious objective to recognize the bravery of a black sailor, Miller, on MLK day. I am skeptical that FPC and its mission to identify and highlight eye-catching excellence in photography is the route to accomplish the goal of the nominator—not with this picture. Perhaps Doris Miller should be a Featured Article next year. But even then, his portrait at the top of the article is a far, far better way to illustrate the topic “Doris Miller” than this one.  Greg L (talk) 00:27, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, the MLK day thing was just a coincidence; here in El Paso most people are more interested in Cesar Chavez day than MLK day, and to be honest MLK day means very little to me since A) I wasn't alive at the time and B) I think there are better people that could be held up as Civil Rights leaders among the African American community - or for that matter, any one of the minority communities in American that take the back seat to the blacks which have the back seat behind the whites. Take Company F, for example, which most of you probably never heard about and likely never will. Guys like that I could get more excited about than good ol' MLK (I mean no offense here, I just feel that those who really fight for what they believe should be a little higher on the totem pole, thats all). As to the criteria: I've got be honest and say that FPC criteria is over my head - all the tech stuff and such that folks judge on literally means nothing to me. These days when I nominate an image here I full expect the image to fail, as most have. When I bring an image or video or other visual medium here I do so because I wish to highlight what I think are memorable photograph moments that to me should be featured if they are not already. Seeing images that were candidates and failed there FPC makes me feel like there may just be hope for the process yet - and by hope, I mean the hope that people will see what I am trying to present rather than seeing a line here a botch there and so forth in that manner. FWIW, I already know for a fact that this will fail; I've never had an FPC pass after the first person to comment votes against it, as you did a few days ago Greg, but for me the consolation prize, and the real reason I put it here, is so the next time someone looks at the image on the image page they'll see the link here and know that this image was once considered a candidate for a star, even if it did not make it. TomStar81 (Talk) 06:30, 22 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I see. Thanks for sharing your interesting and candid views and motivations here. As to your nominations frequently going down in flames after the first “oppose” vote, allow me to suggest a criteria upon which to select candidates: “Stop, Stare & Click.” If there is anything about the subject matter (not the caption), or the way the image was captured, or something about its lighting that really makes your eye stop, then consider bringing it here to FPC. That’s my criteria for judging and I look forward to being able to give you a "support" vote. Greg L (talk) 17:09, 22 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Support Alternate. Technically much improved. Nautica Shad es  13:26, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

-- Jujutacular  talk 04:57, 27 January 2011 (UTC)