Penny for Your Thoughts (+revised)

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Revised Version

Revision 2 (latest)

What changed: I went with a horizontal crop. I played with different positioning of the bear vertically in the frame, and decided to show more of the background and less foreground. Not sure whether that’s ideal, but to me, it felt more candid somehow.

Revision 1

What changed: Cropped from the right and top.

Added after receiving feedback from the community.

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Original Version

Looking down the road

Taking a break

Critique Style: Standard

The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.

Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive

About This Image

We saw this bear about 15 minutes after the bear in my previous post. When we first saw it, it was looking down the road (nothing human coming from that way as the park road was largely closed). It looked so introspective, and as if it wanted to confirm the accuracy of my attempts at anthropromorphism, it decided to have a little sit down in the middle of the bear berry and chill for a bit. Eventually, we tired of watching it rest, and moved on.

Feedback Requested

I’m wondering what you see in this picture. In part, I’m just curious about our tendencies with projecting our thoughts or feelings on creatures like this. When I saw it, standing there, looking down the road, I thought: It’s aware that winter is coming. It’s thinking about the season, eating more. When it sat down, I thought, “I have time. It’s not raining anymore. I’ll just rest a bit and eat more later.” Of course, I could have been all wrong. It might have been thinking about another animal, about the smell of diesel, about that dang bus that comes by once a day.

I’m open to any and all feedback, as usual. In particuar:

1. Is the lack of eye contact a drawback or a positive feature of these two shots?
2. Would you crop closer on the horizontal image, wide on the square one?
3. How is the tonality, saturation, etc. Not much boost in either in post.

Thanks as always for any and all suggestions, and for the generosity of your time in looking at my work.
ML

Technical Details

Canon 5d3 with 100-400 mm at 400
ISO 1000, f/7.1, 1/640 and 1/500

[Karl_Zuzarte (Karl Zuzarte, MNEC)]

Both lovely - i prefer the square one more - even here, i would consider leaving some more space on the left and hence cropping differently. Colors and exposure seem fine

[David_Schoen]

I find the second images a better fit. There’s a good head turn on the bear. Compositionally, I think it is a better image than the first one. However, I would be happy with both images if they were mine.

The colors in both images are outstanding.

[Steve_Buffington]

Great shots Marylynne. I love both of them.

1. The lack of eye contact is not a problem for me at all.
2. I personally would prefer to have a horizontal shot on the bear laying down to get more of this landscape in. And on both shots move the bear to the right, so he is looking into more space. You know, he is thinking… Just my take.
3. The colors are so amazing. The tonality, saturation, etc. on the shots is fine. It looks naturally beautiful to me.

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Thanks, everyone. I have a couple of new crops I’ll share above.
ML

[system]

The original poster added a revised version of their image.

[system]

The original poster added a revised version of their image.

[Dennis_Plank]

I prefer both of your revised crops to the originals, Marylynne. Both are rather pensive views of the bear that hold up rather well for me. My personal preference, partly conditioned by your title is with the bear lying down-it just seems to fit so nicely. Given the propensity of most people to want frame filling action from bears, these probably wouldn’t be super popular, but the one with the bear lying down could stay on a wall for a long time.

[David_Schoen]

Revisions are both considerably better with respect composition. I think you did a good job and reevaluating. The space considerations in these images work better in the revisions.

[Steve_Buffington]

Regarding Revision 2:

I like the new crops in both images, giving us more of the beautiful landscape and lots of room for the bear to view into the distance. What was that guy thinking about…

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Thanks, Dennis, David, and Steve. It’s been so long since I’ve had any wildlife images to play with that composing is a whole new thought process. I’m glad my maximum focal length is 400. It gave me plenty of room to make more careful cropping decisions later.
ML

[Ed_Lowe]

Hi Marylynne,

I think both of your revisions with the small tweaks have pretty much nailed it for me. The autumn colors of the tundra are quite striking and the crop from the right side has given the bear more room to gaze toward the right side and out of the frame. The lack of eye contact does not diminish these two images in any way, shape or form. The saturation and tonality both look just fine to me as well. Beautifully done.

[John_Williams]

I agree, nice job on the revisions. There’s just something about leaving room for the animal to view into that makes the compositions more dynamic. I also agree that it’s wonderful to have such color to surround the bear with.

The lack of eye contact is not a problem at all for me, and it would have changed the “pensive” mood a bit if the bear had been looking at you, and I think the processing looks fine.

[Keith_Flood]

I too prefer the revision 2 (latest) with the space in the direction the bear is looking. Great composition and wonderful scene. I love the colors in the flowers/brush! I feel these types of wildlife images work much better showing the photographer is merely documenting the animal in its habitat vs the “Gotcha!” image when the wildlife is looking directly at the photographer. Very well done!