Cautious Greeting

[Rachel Hollander]

I'm curious as to how others feel about this image. I sort of like the way the 2 adults frame the cub but realize it breaks several conventional rules. Taken in the early morning in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa as the adults returned and the cubs came out to play.

Canon 7D
100-400 @ 340mm
1/1000
f7.1
ISO 400
EC +.33
HH from safari vehicle, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective burning and dodging, color adjustments and sharpened in CS5. This is full frame.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel


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[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Rachel,
The pup had great eye contact and pose. The more I look at this.....the more I agree with your assessment. Unconventional for sure but it does work for me and here's why......I originally thought that the hyena on the left should have more of a head turn towards the pup.....but then that would be more about the interaction of those 2 and makes the one laying down seem out of place. The way you composed leaves all the attention on the pup and you can really see how cautious he looks! Only recommendation form me is to remove the bright blade of grass near the eye of the hyena on the left. Easy tweak to a fantastic moment.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, great to read both your intro and Romans response. For me it illustrates you were thinking about the image and for me, it's refreshing to read a reply that isn't so technical, but looking at the 'bigger picture'.

When I fist saw this I thought exactly that, it needs more room with the inclusion of the heads, but is that too predictable and are we becoming too formulaic in our thinking and presentation? I think it works because it's different and does break rules. IMHO rules are there to be broken providing it works and done for the right reasons, they are just guidelines in which we work, but should never be a straight jacket. I can't comment too much on colour/contrast etc, but agree on Roman's point about a little gardening or toning down. A nice moment in time, well seen and capture.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel,
quite a different thing.
besides the good processing as usual (good job on that ), is the look of the pup making the image for me.
i would like to see a different crop , but not possible without destroying the story.I thing the FG is too empty and unimportant, so looking at the image i think you should have moved the lens a tad upward to get a slightly different comp.

But in real life , i think it is ok, as presented.

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Roman, Steve and Andreas for the much appreciated comments and suggestions. I hadn't even noticed that blade of grass near the adult but now that you mentioned it, my eye keeps going there. Andreas - you are right that I would have been better off tilting up a little. I'm glad to see everyone was open to something a little different. Steve - I agree "guidelines" is probably a better term than "rules".

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like this too, Rachel! I agree with Andreas that framing it with a little less FG (you can crop it too?) and perhaps a touch more above would have been a good call.
Nice light and brown tones here.