Tonight was the first episode of VH1's new fashion photography series The Shot, and it's time to make some initial evaluations.

I find it irritating when people make blanket dismissals of the efforts of people on reality competitions.  It's easy to sit on a couch and judge, but who knows how difficult the challenges might really be with all the variable and elements we might not see from home?  You have to give the participants at least a little credit.  And besides, I'm sure were I ever put on the spot in such a contest I would probably just take an entire roll with the lens cap on. 

But still. Seriously, this is the best these people could do?

While there were a few shots that were at least somewhat well-composed, it was hard to find any pictures of real interest in the entire bunch on The Shot. 

Ivan' s last photo was not composed as well as it could be, unless of course the goal was to prominently display some boobies (and who are we kidding – without ta-tas, how would any form of advertising or marketing exist?), it still at least had some kind of visual simplicity that was refreshing after the cluttered busy-ness of some of the other shots.

There were about seven thousand interviews with his fellow competitors that he showed a lack of leadership and didn't know what was going on. I am going to go out on a limb and say that based on nothing but a gut feeling, I think that if Ivan sticks around, it won't take him too long to develop the confidence he needs to avoid such a situation in the future. I also think he showed – in his “Passion” shoot – that when he was not distracted by the input of his team members, he was able to be a gentle authority figure to the models.

And then, on the other hand, we have Dean. Although Dean and Ivan are from neighboring Bosnia and Croatia, and although the two immediately gravitated towards one another once they realized this, the two are quite different in styles when behind the camera. Where Ivan is calm, bordering on counterproductively passive, Dean is aggressive, verging on offensive. His performance in the first shoot – in which he repeatedly referred to the male model as “Male Model!” (as in “Male Model! Turn to your left!”) – was almost a caricature of the temperamental fashion photographer. That said, his photo in the elimination challenge was actually fairly solid.

Piper is certainly being set up to be the house nag and anytime someone describes themselves as “raw” and “cutting edge” I become immediately suspicious. I just have never met an actually-talented raw and cutting edge person who referred to himself or herself in that fashion.

Airic's cheesecake photos and hyper-sexualized presentation might eventually get to be too much. Jason reminded me of Brian Malarkey from Top Chef, and his highly-spun answer regarding his model's swimsuit outfit (she's “shredding the shroud of the concubine”) make me wonder if he's a slick performer to make up for deficiencies in his skill. John is far too thrilled with himself; I hope this competition has an ego-mitigating effect on him. I think he's safe for a while though, because he has host Russell James' hair.

The other contestants have so far stayed more under the radar, but we'll keep checking back. What did you think of the photographers on The Shot?

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist