Mother Gooseby
cbellerComment by photom: Hi Chris and
* Greetings from the Critique Club
Your "Mother Goose" is a very striking image with an excellent nature story. I suspect it did not score higher because of the challenge you entered it in. It's a rather difficult image to say it's exactly dead centered - and may voters ger really picky about "meeting the challenge" exactly.
Here's some suggestions on how you could take the same inage and make it even stronger:
a) You shot it fairly wide open (f5.6) and at 1/1500. Even with a zoom lens you could stop down 2 stops to f11 and hand hold at 1/125th. That may be marginal - but would definitely work on a tripod. By stopping down you would gain more DoF and may be able to hold the goslings in the forground in focus.
b) If you wait a bit, it's usually possible to get a catchlight in the Mom's eye - which adds a lot.
c) Remove the 3 circles in the water, top left.
d) I'm not fond of the "half birds" on the left and right edges, try to avoid cutting body parts off.
These are just my observations, a "one man's opinion" - others may not agree, so just consider them.
Even with the 4 minor suggestions noted, it's a good stong image - but maybe not the right one for "centered."
Keep shooting and striving to meet the rest of your 2004 DPC goals!
-Tom-
Photographer found comment helpful.
