Back on August 4, I posted a selection of similar images and asked for help selecting the best of four compositions. As has been the case in the past, there was no clear consensus, but there was a winner. That winner was PHOTO NUMBER FOUR.
This was the most popular choice from the voting. (Though not by a landslide.)
Photo number four got 25 votes, followed by photo number one with 22 votes. Photos number two (7 votes) and three (3 votes) lagged far behind. However, it was interesting that all four compositions got votes, and even numbers two and three had very passionate supporters.
This one (photo number one) finished a close second to photo number four.
For many people, the choice came down to whether or not the image was a photo of a prairie landscape with a bee in it (#1) or a photo of a bee in a prairie landscape (#4). Some people liked the “surprise” of seeing the bee upon looking closely at a prairie. Others enjoyed the more exposed bee in the vertical photo.
For what it’s worth, the photos were presented in the order I took them in the field. I personally like number one best, but mainly because it best represents the feel I was trying to capture when I first saw the flowers and then discovered the bee. I do like number four too, and remember making the decision to drop a little lower with my camera so the bee would be more visible against the sky. …Of course, I like number two and number three too…
So, thanks for your help. This is why photographers usually take many photos of the same subject, experimenting with various compositions. It’s hard to know what you (or others) will like best later on. This is also why I’ve never enjoyed photo contests. It’s relatively easy to separate images that are technically good from those that aren’t, but the process is very subjective from there. In some ways, a big selection of photos is much like an ecosystem – you can argue that one species/photo is more important than another, but it’s really the abundance and diversity that makes both a photo contest and ecosystem work!
The Prairie Ecologist 
that’s awesome Chris! Thanks for following up on this! love the photos.
Not sure if you had that lesson in ecology planned from the beginning Chris, but nice that you brought it around to that in the end. I always tried to stick the best I could to the Leopoldian definition of “right and wrong” in terms of land management, but we all certainly have different perspectives on the same thing. “Right” then indeed becomes much more subjective.