This photo really bombed with the curators...they gave it a 2% approval. It was difficult to tell why it was so disliked because both of the charts "like" and "dislike" were pretty much the same. "Subject" was equally liked and disliked. 

I shot this a few weeks ago in Washington Square Park, in New York City. It appeared as though this mother had hired photographers to film her with her daughter 

chasing pigeons. The resident "pigeon man" was there throwing seed around.

I just happened by and grabbed a few shots without time to set my camera. I did manage to get the shutter speed up because there was a lot of action.  The shot is very noisy because my ISO was on automatic and my shutter speed was high Ap 5.17, Shutter 1/2500 ISO 5000. Focal length 59 Nikon Z7ii /Nikkor 24/200. Edited in PS Camera Raw. I used Topaz DeNoise AI to try and remove the noise.

I would love to know why this was so disliked and if there is anything I can do to improve it.

Wow, you caught a great moment. And the little girl looks like she's having fun. I will let the senior critics give the expert advice on the photo, but I do like it. Thanks for sharing it.

Hi Jane welcome to critique. I have had a very close look at your image in Photoshop and this is my findings. Composition and framing very good. Great moment of capture. Now the down side. Overall the images lacks quality  take a close look at the womens face and arm at 100% I don't know how you processed this image but going back to basics might solve your quality problem. As you know when it comes to published images on 1x.com perfection is the key. Thank you for sharing...

Jane Lyons Hello, perhaps you can show the original or with just the basic edits and see how the quality is. Noise may not be necessarily a bad thing, mainly for street photography. The overall mood of the picture is uplifting, one feels wishing to be there. That has been captured so well. 

Jane,

Thanks for submitting this image. I really like the composition. The pigeons really cooperated in creating a great scene without blocking the view of the woman and child.

Daniel Springgay has raised a good point. In addition to his suggestion of re-processing the image I would wait a few months and then re-submit it. The composition with the issues correction stands a good chance in my opinion. I've found that sometimes the second time around the reception can be quite different. Curation, after all, is a an extremely subjective process.

Best wishes,

Mike S. - Senior Critic