Who Green lighted the cover photo for this month's BA mag?

Don't get me wrong. Love the mag, but that cover photo. Who's the photo editor who OK'ed this? The nose of a large bearded man sniffing hop pellets does not please the eye. Even the best prime lens can't make that photo look attractive. Just my 2 cents. Still, love the content. Been a subscriber for 2 years now.

I actually don't see anything wrong with the cover of the mag at all. Not my fav but certainly nothing wrong with it. To each his own I guess.

agree with op

It's beer advocate not vanity fair, if a bearded man sniffing hops can't go on the cover of this magazine it's a sad day for bearded men with large noses everywhere.

The thing about it is, this guy doesn't have a large nose. It's probably normal to smallish as far as noses go. The angle the photo was taken from and the fact that it's the focal point of the photo makes it look gigantic.

Like the cover - who cares about noses, we all have them, diversity...

You can stick to AB ads if you want big tittied women and all that. The reason that this picture is a great cover photo is that its real. Its a true representation of the craft beer scene showing a man that no doubt loves craft beer getting all up in those beautiful hop pellets.

are we really discussing this? Can I get another Three Floyds burned down joke please....

The subject matter is valid, but the photo is not well executed, IMO

It's more attractive than your avatar. Cover looks fine to me.

At least it is not taken from the opposite point of view so you see up his nose. It can always be worse.

Opinion of the head of a photo department at a major newspaper:

Not appealling ... the composition puts your eye on his nose and gross fingernails (terrible angle). The glasses suspended there also. A nice shot of a handful of beautiful hops with a person smiling would have gotten the message across a little more elegantly.

I kind help but sing, "Too much time on my hands, too much time on my hands." Great, I'm going to be singing this fucking song all day.

I happen to think it's a great cover. My eyes are drawn to the hop pellets and the green hop dust all over his finger tips. I can almost smell those hops just by looking at it. I don't think someone holding hops in their hands and smiling would get the point across at all. I think getting your nose in there and getting a good whiff is what is all about. IMO.

I love all the fuss people put up about BA mag covers. I recall one long stupid argument because a cover showed a tap spout touching the beer and another one about the woman on the cover having too low cut of a shirt. Is your life missing something meaningful to be angry about?

The guy on the cover looks like about 90% of men at beer festivals so you probably wouldn't enjoy one of those either.

Really?

My eyes were drawn to the pellets first, then his face. Not a terrible cover by any means.

It made me think of Jerry(with one too many fingers) and hoppy beer. So what's to complain about?

Oh good grief. I thought I was buying BeerAdvocate magazine, not Architectural Digest. Who cares? Put a plain piece of white paper on the cover. Put a rat drinking from the tap at Founders. Its a picture, not deciding whether to enlist. Half the time my cover is ripped to shit anyway so I don't give a care.

I like the cover. Love for the beer industry mixed with passion from that "large bearded man". He is who makes what we enjoy so much.

Imagine a world that brewers did not care what they put in our beer! Oh yeah, that would be like the '70's.

Or Dogfish Head, sometimes.

needs more hot beer wenches

When are they going to get rid of that huge ugly black bar at the top of every magazine?

Myself included.

who gives a shit

I don't know, man. The subject matter is good, and plainly relevant. And there are some good things happening in the image--look at the way his nose fits into the negative space between the palms of his hands. I also like the shallow depth of field in the image. Everything in the composition is leading the eye straight to the pile of hop pellets.

Without trying to go all art director on you, I might've centered the pic a little more (cropped the image so his nose is on the centerline of the cover). Also, the image seems to tilt a little to the lower left corner of the cover, so I might've "corrected" that tilt.

I'm not sure why they would want to. It does a good job of reflecting the design of this site.

If I were the creative director/art director, I might look at swapping the position of the BA logo and the 2 lines of feature stories. That would bring it even more in line with the look of the header of this site. The article titles would effectively become the "navigation" options for the magazine. (It would also eliminate the trapped space between the "e" in "Advocate" and the right edge of the magazine.)

Only thing I would have changed was to swap out the pellet hops for some crunched up cones/whole flowers.

I like it.

The reasons the 'major newspaper' photo editor dislike it are precisely the reasons i feel it belongs on the cover of BA - because it looks authentic.

I have to agree with the people who think this is an appropriate cover. Guys like the dude on the cover is a good representation of the passion that goes into the awesome craft beers we all love. I'd rather see some bearded guy taking the time to inspect the ingredients he is about to put in to the beer he is about to brew than some totally awesome ad for a tasteless beer. Just my 2 cents

Seriously? It could be worse. The green pellet hops completely draws the eye away from the man, so it works for me. Plus, every cover can't have a smoking hot chick holding drinks on it.

It's really not proper magazine design. Emulating the website design can be done without making it look like exactly website.

Works for me.

You were expecting a bounty of hop cones nestled in a womans cleavage with a brewer going blbblblblbblbl and horking it all in? Hmm.

I have to wonder what this person thinks "the message" is? To me, this picture captures a real person and their passion. His fingernails are "gross" because he works with his hands and at this moment they are covered in hop dust. He's wearing glasses because he wears glasses. I'm much happier with a real member of the community on the cover than some picture-perfect model.

Where's the big nosed bearded dude? I only see hops...beautiful green aromatic hop deliciousness.

The guy on the cover is probably feeling bad about himself right about now.

How else would you like a picture of someone sniffing hop pellets to look? Should he be doing a handstand in front of the Eiffel Tower?