Will this grow out?

A pair of feral burros up on the rocks at Lake Pleasant, AZ. They are covered in seed pods that have velcro-like grippiness. I’m bummed that the hooves are cut off due to our being so much lower than they are, but what can you do?

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This was a tough one to process in terms of cropping. It’s pretty much full frame. Thoughts?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Handheld in the boat

image

Lr processed for basic RAW developing, but it didn’t need a lot. Then into Ps for a little judicious cloning and some dodging & burning.

@the.wire.smith
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Kris, it’s hard to believe these little guys live their lives with these seed pods embedded in their hair. Drives me crazy just looking at it. I like the expressions on the burros faces. I feel like they are trying to tell us something. Since their hooves are lost anyway, I wonder about a tighter crop emphasizing the burros but keeping the cactus in the background.

I love this, with the rugged Saguaro echoing the rugged little Burros! (Where was I when you saw it? I don’t have one anything like this!) I don’t think cutting off the hooves is a big deal, since the view is obviously up. It wasn’t your framing that cut them off.

Maybe pull out a tad more detail in the darks? But it’s obviously full sun…

Thanks @kelly_cole & @Diane_Miller - they are tough little beasts so I don’t think the burrs actually bother them much.

I’ll play with tightening up the crop and with the shadows. It was full blast sun so they were deep, but it might be pleasing to see more there if not totally realistic.

What I like most is that you’ve caught them both with their ears pointing forward. And they’re nicely balanced with the background. No feet isn’t a bother.

Thanks @David_Bostock - they flicked those ears around a lot so it was just waiting them out to get the forward tilt.

Is that why they’re called 'burr’os? A very nice environmental image of these two, Kris. The burrs really do stand out nicely.