Is it a good photograph?
I’ll save your blushes and say straight out - no its not.
More of a snap thats technically good as in its pretty much in focus, pretty well exposed and has all the bits in I wanted in.
Is it a worthy photo? Worthy for a photography forum such as the esteemed discuss.pixls.us?
Again no. Perhaps more suited to social media, but since I detest and despise social media with a raging hot passion you’re it.
Is it a successful photo?
Why yes it is.
Its successful because 1) it turned out just as I envisioned it and 2) because it ticks all the boxes for inclusion in the series Home Comforts.
The drool running down the middle cushion?
Doggie has to work for her dinner.
Thanks for sharing, @jimd
I’m not sure what metric applies as to what is “worthy.”
As you say, it does what you expect.
A closer crop and it would be a very nice pet portrait - the focus and the lighting on the eyes in particular is superb.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder; worthiness similarly.
A caption competition would be a great development (sic) of this capture. e.g.: “Guilty as charged, your honour, but plead hungry and cute as mitigating circumstances.”
I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself - you’ve got a clear, beautiful, and interesting subject here (and I’m not even a dog person) which immediately puts it ahead of plenty of submissions on the forum.
Add to that the fact you haven’t oversharpened it, tried to make it HDR, or otherwise ruined the photo in your RAW editor of choice is only getting you even further ahead of all the “bad” images IMO.
It’s not a particularly compelling image by itself, but could easily be included in a set of images that could be quite strong together. I’ve seen worse hanging in galleries.
— yours truly, my allergies.