Shot at Bosque del Apache refuge with EF 300 f/4IS, Sensia II

-- Ming Kuo (mkuo@nmsu.edu), August 24, 1998

Answers

A great, very unique image. Nice colour and exposure. I'm put off by the close cropping on the left and right -- I'd like to see the "empty" top and bottom orange border extend all the way around. Also, It looks like the nearest birds are out of focus -- a larger depth of field would probably have been better.

-- Steve Leroux (steve@bigadventures.com), August 24, 1998.

IMO cropping off the bottom to balance the tight cropping on the right helps. The slight blurriness is not too distracting since there is a bit of softness in the image anyways. A nice shot!

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), August 24, 1998.

I like this shut alot. At exactly the rigth place and rigth time! Congratulations. But I have a problem with this one. It is a composition problem. I would try to have more(?) empty space to balance, it seems they are too crowded. If you have more shuts of the same sciene I would love to see.

Hamdi

-- Hamdi Ogut (oguth@ucs.orst.edu), August 24, 1998.

I prefer the close cropping and would prefer to see the upper part of the image cropped out. The grass sticking out of the water doesn't add a great deal. A vertical format may emphasize the diagonal shadows.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), August 25, 1998.

Thanks for the comments, guys. The lighting was poor, and the geese were moving about, forcing me to shoot wide open, hence the shallow DOF. I had actually cropped a bit off the left and right side, but I guess it's better to just leave it in. I'm glad I found this forum!

-- Ming Kuo (mkuo@nmsu.edu), August 25, 1998.

Ming, I'd tighten up the composition. The ducks form a "pattern" in the frame. Opening up space around them just makes them appear as a group of ducks. Cropping a bit off the bottom help's to reinforce this in the composition.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), August 25, 1998.

When I looked at the image I immediately knew what I liked but I was not sure of what was holding me back. It took me a few trips and I eventually figured it out. The picture is perfectly exposed and has an elegant feel of light that takes one's breath away. Birds are slightly blurred but this can happen when you are shooting against the sun. The main element that I thought the image had room for improvement was its composition and the positioning of the birds. They do not form an eye-pleasing pattern that matches the image's perfect exposure. Since you had no control, perhaps if next time you are in a similar situation, reduce their number and by simplifying the subject you could better control the image's composition. The alternative is that don't crop them so tightly and allow them breathing space so that they are a part of a larger universe. By giving them more space the positioning of the birds becomes less significant. Good luck.

-- Bahman Farzad (bahman_farzad@mindspring.com), August 26, 1998.

Lovely, lovely, lovely. It's nice to see something entirely different! I would love to play with this one in the dark room trying different contrast and color settings. My only (minor) critisizm is that the picture could have much better DOF if you had used a tripod (guess only).

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), August 27, 1998.

I note that you used a Canon IS lens, but I think the softness overall adds greatly to the photo. I wouldn't crop more than a smidgeon off of the top of the photo because it defines the space for the geese. It's not primarily a graphic photo of the geese and the shadows of the geese being the main subject, but of them in their environment. Because of this I think its necessary to leave in some space at the top and the grasses. Overall a great photo I'd be proud to have shot.

-- Warren Kato (wkato@aol.com), August 27, 1998.

Excellent! IMHO in this case shallow DOF makes the image !

-- Adrian Sorescu (guide@dial.rpknet.ro), August 29, 1998.