-- Steve Ralser (ralser@nmt.edu), December 23, 1999

Answers

Steve, Although I think I understand what you were trying to show with the above image I may have some suggestions for you.

1. Try to isolate whatever is important to your image. In this case is it the bird, water, solitude of the situation or maybe the patterns of the light. Maybe a longer lense would have helped to isolate the bird or a wider angle or smaller aperature would have brought more of the image into focus.

2. DOF if very important as foreground objects out of focus distract from the image. Background objects out of focus also distract from the image although not as much. This image has both foreground and background objects out of focus and is therefore very difficult to view.

3. This is a very high contrast scene. Contrast is not a bad thing but the dynamic range of the photo is off the shelf and therefore you have a lot of dead area.

4. I think the best "purpose" of this image was to portray the calmness and serenity of the situation. More space in the image would have helped in that situation.

Just my two cents.

G. Whalen

-- G. Whalen (whalen1@circle.net), December 24, 1999.

I think a tighter crop on this image- one with the drinking bird and its reflection, the blue water and a bit of dark shoreline would make for a really strong picture.

-- Billy Gorum (Herphoto@aol.com), December 24, 1999.

I completely disagree with the previous posts, I think cropping would simply make this your typical boring fill-the-frame wildlife shot. As it is now, I think it is a wonderful image, almost abstract. The repeating reeds, out of focus and in focus, the deep monoton blue, the textured shoreline, the sharp bird with a crystal clear reflection, almost as if it is praying... i think everything works perfectly. this would look great as a big enlargement. good job!

-- Martin Ceperley (martin@ceperley.com), December 24, 1999.

I thinkn if you crop off the whole right half of the image eliminating the reeds you would have a graphic and an abstract and a wildlife shot all in one. Take your pick.

-- martin schwartz (mschwartz31@home.com), December 30, 1999.