Grasshopper on Echinacea

[Bill Jobes]

This grasshopper stopped by at lunchtime to partake of the bounty.

Nikon D4

Sigma 150 2.8

1/1600, F/8, 0.3 EV, SB-800 at 0.7 EV

Auto ISO landed at 640.

This is hand-held close to the flower, thus resulting on narrow DOF.

C&C welcomed and appreciated.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The exposure is spot on, the grasshopper is very well illustrated, and beautifully sharp the DOF is excellent.
Just two minor points for me - is it a crop if not I think I would include the whole flower head if that is practicable. Secondly I think I would clone that OOF petal by the wing.

[gary ellwein]

Jonathan has commented on the excellent technical aspects of the image. I too, would remove the OOF petal. If mine, I'd experiment with making the hopper the main subject. This would require a vertical crop with only a portion of the flower presented. This suggestion only applies if there is available canvas in the original image.

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks Jonathan and Gary. You both raise points that I considered. My main motivation here was to see what others thought about the crop issue, as I was totally flummoxed by the options.

Tight crop. Loose Crop. Entire flower. Partial flower.

The OOF petal falls into the same category.

I was very tempted to offer a tight vert of the grasshopper, but all sense of place would have been lost.

I've concluded, taking into account the comments, that the best display would be to include the full flower and clone the errant petal at right.

Many thanks for the input. :S3:

[Diane Miller]

OK -- I'm the outsider. I'd crop a little more from the left and allow more right, top and bottom -- at least to have a look for comparison.

Wonderful capture -- the grasshopper really stands out!

[Dave Johnson]

There's certainly plenty of options for crops with this one Bill. Good points by above, and think they would all work providing you have canvas to work with. Personally I'd like to see a little more on the right and top. Great shot though.

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks Diane and Dave for the excellent suggestions. Here's a repost taking them into account. :S3:

[Diane Miller]

I was thinking of less of a crop from the left -- just halfway into the petals but not into the center of the flower. And maybe with the added canvas elsewhere it wouldn't be important. I do like the extra breathing room you added!

[Bill Jobes]

Sounds good. Looking again at my RP, it does seem to be too tight on the left.


Sent from my iPhone

[Jonathan Ashton]

Bill if it is possible I would go for landscape version including the whole flower head, (just thought I would add a little variety!!)

[Bill Jobes]

Good idea, Jonathan.

Here is the full frame, unprocessed save to reduce the file size and convert from NEF to JPEG and from RGB to sRGB.

Thus, anyone who would want to play with crop variations can have a go at it.

By the way, I shot the original in 5:4 format, which is an option in the D4. I figured since I was shooting bugs, I didn't need the landscape space.

- Bill