Meeting of a seagull and Kayaker for C&C.

[Tight Knot]

Hi all,

A cute photo, let me know what you think.
Fairly heavily cropped.

 

[Tight Knot]

Bump.
C&C Anyone?

 

[EckoZero]

Personally I think there is too much dead space in this shot.
A slightly tighter crop would make the front of the kayak fall into a 1/3 segment - I find myself looking at the right hand of the photo and thinking "nice composition" but by the time I ge tover to the left it feels too big and empty for me.

I like the look of the seagull coming at the kayaker but I think that there needs to be more contrast between the sea and the seagull.


On the upside, I think the yellow and reds in the picture are very striking and well placed

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks EckoZero,

I was trying to give the impression of the kayak moving forward, and that's why I left the empty space, but maybe I'm trying to get too much into the photo, the movement and the meeting of the seagull and the kayak.

 

[EckoZero]

I see what you mean there... leaving enough frame for it to look like the kayaker is coming into the frame.
In that case, how about cropping a bit off the top and the bottom? That would trim out some of the dead space but still leave the idea of moving into the frame.

 

[Tight Knot]

Good idea, I'll try it and see how it looks.

 

[PASM]

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.” -Robert Capa

I think you're not zoomed-in enough to make it interesting. Not just composition (you could crop 25% left/top, maintining 3:2) but detail.

 

[Jace]

To me it didn't convey motion really, it seems more like the kayaker is about to swing for the fences, and the bird is gonna lose some stitching.

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks PASM,

I was using a 250mm lens and had it zoomed all the way to 250mm, plus the photo is fairly heavily cropped. Without a longer lens, not much else I could do

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks Jace,
If you look carefully ( I know, really, really carefully) you can see the wake behind the kayak, but I think you are right, It would look better zoomed in more, and the seagull got away without injuries.
DISCLAIMER: There were no animals hurt in the production of this photograph

 

[Tight Knot]

Any better?

 

[sanderso]

Yes, I think so. Also, the new crop increased the definition of the gull which makes it more interesting (IMO).

 

[Tight Knot]

Thanks Sanderso,

I actually sharpened and added more contrast to the seagull by itself.