Taken at 8pm, the sun was just going down casting a great shadow off this American Black Bear. I was anticipating his return as he has been frequenting my yard and destroying all my bird feeders, so the camera and Bigma were on the tripod just waiting. I have several other pics that I will be posting after this challenge has ended.
Statistics
Place: 123 out of 154 Avg (all users): 5.0166 Avg (commenters): 5.7143 Avg (participants): 4.8472 Avg (non-participants): 5.1284 Views since voting: 1785 Views during voting: 243 Votes: 181 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
First impression and overall look:
Wow! Thank God I live in a country where the most dangerous animal is the boar. I wouldn't want to wake up and find that in my back yard. You're a brave person to make this shot at all.
That said, photo-wise there is something to be improved on the composition. While I understand that the challege was shadows, and therefore you wanted to include the shadow of the bear in your photo, it doesn't really add to the image. The fore and background you could also do less with. A tighter crop would lose the 'snapshot' feeling that this picture breathes. The problem with that then becomes that you would lose points for DNMC.
Technical and post processing:
Technically it's all fine. Lighting is OK, and I doubt a larger aperture would improve the DoF very much, although the image would be better with the background more out of focus. Cropping and bordering the image would make some difference.
Meeting the challenge:
Well, there is a shadow, but it's certainly not what you were aiming for in this image. This photo is about the bear and the shadow only comes second place.
How to raise your score:
The fact that the bear is the attention point and not the shadow certainly cost you a lot of points. I feel that this image would have done a lot better in a 'Wildlife' challenge than in the shadows challenge. All in all, this image is a bit too flat to score high.
Challenge: SHADOWS III
Description: Creatively capture a shadow
Advanced Edit
Bearly a shadow
Fit: Clearly meets the challenge 1
Aesthetics: OK composition 1
Good subject but does not feel balanced
Technical: Technically OK 1
Maybe some more contrast?
Wow: Has some impact 1
Brave man to take the shot but lacks something for me - sorry
Total Score = 4
I think what throws this off for me (challenge-wise) is that the subject seems to be the bear rather than the shadow. Also, the composition seems a little static with the bear and shadow in the center of the pic. I think that if they were in the lower third it might work a little better - give it a little more sense of being out in the wilderness.
I also think that this would work better for the challenge if the shadow had a little more definition to it...if it looked more like the outline of the bear.
It's not a bad shot of a bear, but for a 'shadow' challenge, it's lacking a little 'oomph' in the shadow area.
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