Brought To You By The Letter D

divmedic4

My original thoughts were Daughter, Ducks, Dog or Dock. Since the daughter won't be home for Thanksgiving until after the deadline and DsrtVW beat me to the punch on ducks, I present Dog(s) and Dock(s) for you opinions and suggestions.

1)


2)


3)


4)

sapphire73

Love the dogs! My favorite shots for a letter "D" entry are #2 and #3 (but may change with further viewing). Rationale to follow....

#1 - Lovely landscape but the setting sun and the light on the water pull my eye from the dock.
#2 - My eye focuses more on the dock here and the sky above - and warm light on the water below - complement it nicely!
#3 - Like the DOF, texture, expression and composition here. It seems to convey intelligence, loyalty, and attentiveness.
#4 - Great, expression here and gorgeous silky coat, but the framing feels a bit tight on the bottom.

Hope this is helpful!

Gretchen

divmedic4

Very helpful - thank you. I wish I had thought about the sun distracting from the dock in #1 and tried to position myself so it fell near the end of it instead of so far away.

DsrtVW

I just started with Ducks because I am already shooting them all the time. The ones I posted was from the 6th day in a row that I had been up before sunrise chasing ducks.
There is no rule that you cant use the same subject. I had thought of Dogs and Docks but had not gotten to those yet.
Like #2 for the dock. Better comp and subject

and #4 for the dog better expression

divamum

#2 and #3 work the best here, I think, and I'd plump for #2 out of these because in #3 I want more eyes - with him (?her) looking away from camera, I don't feel entirely engaged with the dog. #2 feels more like a "complete" image.

kwickers

I think I would like more Dock and less scene (sky and sun) to make the point on 1 and 2. I love Dogs! But I prefer action shots or multiple dogs in one photo. ie:
From my K-9 Ranch:

sapphire73

I agree that the ideal would be to have more eye contact or action with a photo of dog, but I know how hard it can be to get good shots of dogs! (When we were focusing on monotones, I tried photographing my daughter's boxer, pit bull mix, and/or the white boxer she is fostering and found it hard to get a good shot. Easier when two were having a tug of war with a partially deflated soccer ball a couple of years ago!)

One more thought re #2 would be to boost the saturation in the sky a bit, with the idea of bringing out the rose and blue tones just a bit more.

Btw, have you posted your winning Halloween shot somewhere we could see it?

Cheers,
Gretchen

divmedic4

DsrtVW - Thanks for the feedback. Your shots, imo, are amazing so I am happy to leave the ducks to you.

Diva - Both dogs are females. Do you think if I lightened the eyes a little it would help the connection or is it overall?

Kwickers - My retriever would love that but the mutt is way too prissy. Some awesome shots in that gallery. Does this crop help with what you were saying about the dock photos?



Sapphire73, this is the photo that won the contest in print. If it should be moved please let me know and I will make a different thread.

sapphire73

Great Halloween shot! Thanks for sharing it!

You might want to give your crop of #2 a number (or call it #2b) so people can refer to it in their comments. I would love to see another version with just a third of the sky cropped so that we can see the bird in the sky and the lighter clouds just above and to the right of it.

Good luck with it!

Gretchen

lkbart

& congrats again on the win!

I like the dock shots, but my eye goes straight to the sunset in both of them. The docks might catch my eye more if it were more of a silhouette against the sky rather than against the lake & trees (lower perspective?).

I prefer the dog shots - #3 is very cute but I'm also wanting to see more of the eyes - either brighter or looking into or toward the camera. The expression in #4 is great - good focus & lighting too. If you cropped it tighter on the top & right (even cropping a touch off the head & ear), the closeness of the bottom might appear intentional.

SeascapeS

I love #3 - fantastic shot!

Kinkajou

The problem with #3 for me is that they eyes look dark. If you can lighten them up a little bit and find a catchlight to bring out, I think it would strengthen the image quite a bit.

#2 is gorgeous, but I don't think it is as strongly 'D' as #1 or #3 and #4.