The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
My favorite local winter spot is the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. Four months before this photo was taken a brushfire destroyed about 95% of the vegetation bordering the pond. I was photographing the damage and enjoying the different views of the wildlife that still lived there. I have a minor professional interest in the problems of eyewitness testimony, which includes the power of suggestion even when posed as a negative. Hence the title. A standard composition would place emphasis on the elements of the photographs that are in-focus and correctly exposed. This one urges you to ignore the background which, once the urging is said, makes the background the only interesting thing in the photograph.
Specific Feedback
I think it works as it is, but I’m open to feedback, especially about whether the “subject” in the background should be obscured even more.
Technical Details
This was photographed using a Nikon D850 and a Sigma 150-500 f5.0-6.3 at 500mm. 1/1000 sec @f8. It was processed in Lightroom to increase the contrast.
Dostoyevsky wrote: “Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.” We come across a variation of this often on this site when someone remarks that they see a weird face in a rock formation, for example, and then everyone can’t not see it!
You captured the pelican excellently - and your experiment certainly worked on me. It might have worked even more if you had titled the shot vaguely (but included the instruction somewhere below the photo), but at the very first I think I did only see a jumble of branches, then the mental switch was tripped (forever!).
Thank you! That’s a great line from Dostoyevsky.
It’s amazing how we can be fully attentive and alert and not see what’s in front of us, depending on where our attention is focused and what we expect to see. And recall is even worse. These are mechanisms that work very well in traffic, but in the field we often fail to observe what is right in front of us. I once stood 3 feet from a dead deer by the side of the road as I waited for the clouds to move and let the sun illuminate a stand of aspens, and only noticed it when my wife pointed it out.
