Adam's photo - now in mono and cropped

As suggested, Adam's excellent shot cropped to echo the lead-in lines of the huts more and emphasise the letterbox element of the pier PLUS a nice mono treatment, and lose some of the somewhat redundant shoreline..

Thoughts?

Ivan

Nova Scotian view - the re-crop

Never one to ignore an interesting comment, I have cropped this image to respond to D's comment to "make it more of a feature". So, have tried to do this. Does this work better? Is this what you had in mind, D?

Ivan

Freestylers Revisited

With the new posting pace (which I approve of), here is a shot from April this year when we had the three Freestylers in town.



Taken on a slate grey afternoon, taken unsupported and at a little bit of distance, tight crop. Small blurring, however I quite like the motion freeze and crowd blur. B&W worked better than colour.

Comments? Suggestions?

As a small background to this shot - the footballer doing this trick is Jeremy Lynch who after being in Dubai went on to the semi-finals of the TV show "Britain's Got Talent" with his freestyling skills. (Youtube clip)

A new post: revisiting the puppy

OK, here's my initial effort to contribute more. It's the puppy again, but taking into account some of the suggestions from the previous time I posted this image. I tweaked the levels a bit, and tightened the crop with the dog on the right (sorry Dam, I prefer this side...) but still wonder if I should try get rid of that back leg. Same for the b&w. Your thoughts?

My crop

This is the crop that I prefer; tight to the left and open on the right. Reason being is that I like space, a lot, and I like the dog looking away from the space. His back leg projecting into this space seems to work too.

Gorgeous dog by the way...

Damian

A load of crop.

I love this evil puppy look. First image: full frame. Next two: crops. What do you think? Does the cropping help? If so, which is better? Or, what else would be better?

Whale and Horse - quick reworkings...

Dear D and C

Without access to my image-editing utility of choice (PS CS), I have quickly tweaked the two images in question to see if there was any "improvement" or enhamcement possible.

Let me know what you think in the usual way...

Ivan

Beachwalkers; The Ann Miles/Gareth Marlow crop

This is the result of the Ann Miles crop (lose the sea) and Gareth's crop (lose the LHS to off-centre the figures).

I do think it's better all round, and a great way (as D says) to use the blog.

Regarding D's comments, this scene didn't exist, so it's an artistic interpretation of what I WANTED it to be. Myself - or anyone else - can enjoy it just the same, for it's appeal is purely visual and emotional. Artist's change stuff all the time when they paint, and it's not as if the scene is so fantastical that it COULDN'T exist; it could have, had the weather conditions been more conducive. The sky is from the same place, a little later in the day, so I've combined two elements from the same place to improve the image.

As for D's other point, some consideration before you take the picture is good, but sometimes time and the light mean you have to be quick; but then it's down to planning, knowing the area, anticipating the light, getting into position and being there, ready, when you need to click, so I see what he's getting at. Great landscape photographers put in the preparation to make sure they can have the time to plan and think, and be ready when the light gets great. Sometimes, snapshots work too, if you're lucky...

Comments welcomed as ever.

Ivan

I like Cropping (and I like to Crop)...

Couldn't help myself. I liked Gareth's bridge picture, but felt it may do better with a more dynamic crop (and lightened up a bit, with a bit more contrast too). So, here is my effort.


Comments?

Ivan

Italian Dolomites - an exercise in cropping

The first image is already a crop from the original picture - my lens at that time was not long enough to get in for the framing I wanted. Anyway, we'll start with the one below as the "original" image. Views on that are welcomed in itself, but I also want to know what you think of the crops below.



First crop - to focus in on the tree filled hillside and the shapes of the interlocking valley and distant peak. Not much sky interest, so tried to minimise this by making it less evident. Also, the landscape - almost panoramic crop - is trying to emphasise the interlocking valley sides.



Second crop - closer again, trying to make the tree hillside fill the foreground by bisecting with the bottom left of the image frame. By going in closer, again the sky is de-emphasised and the little hillfort becomes more of a feature.



I welcome your views on each image and the relative merits of each crop (or not).

Ivan

Cropping Assignment - Photo Mono Lake

Here are my choices of cropping for the photo Mono Lake


This is the original photo. It cries out for a panoramic format but I wanted to avoid the obvious so I spent some time really looking at the photo and tried to see the elements that appealed to me.

This salt (?) structure is what stood out for me so I took that as my focal point. Here I attempted to use the stream in the foreground to lead the viewer in, and removed some of the sky to focus the eye more on the structure.


In this crop, I used a square format and opened up the image to allow more elements to be see, such as the clouds and the subtle colour in the sky. I have also used the mountain range as a background and pulled emphasis away from the salt structure.

Damian