Fungi

[Don Berendsen]

I took numerous pictures of these fungi which were growing all along a fence rail. Deciding which to select was a challenge as each section had its own beauty. Then came the challenge of cropping the image. I find it difficult to see the final comp in the viewfinder or even something close to it, it's a skill I really need to work on.

Olympus E-3 & 12-60mm @ 60mm. Aperture Priority, 1/25 second, F8, ISO 100, tripod but with IS On (Olympus recommends IS be OFF when using a tripod). Also I think the lens wasn't quite perpendicular to the subject which resulted in some softness in the upper right...I'm still along way from being really in control of the camera!

The day was quite cool, breezy, damp, and overcast.




http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/7927/p6112413b2.jpg



Any feedback on the composition or anything else you feel might be helpful would be appreciated.


Thanks for taking a look.

[Gordon Craig]

I really like this picture. Its often hard to get a clean picture of fungii like this. With regards to the viewfinder follow the link below. I use a hoodman to assist me. I would have shot the picture more to the right and eliminated the fungii on the bottom left.
http://hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1017

[Julie Kenward]

Gordon, nice exposure on this...lots of detail and sharpness to most of the entire image. I like that you placed the fungi pattern on a diagonal - that always helps the eye travel the length of the frame.

If I had composed this in field I probably would have tried to get the dark brown fungi at both ends entirely in the frame to balance out each opposing corner. Because they are darker and larger than the white fungi they would help to anchor the piece at both ends. Hope that helps!

[Fabs Forns]

Good advise from Jules, I'd probably gone tighter too. Nicely done.

[Don Berendsen]

Thank you very much Gordon, Julie and Fabs for your very useful and encouraging comments. I had hoped to get out to the location to take some other shots that would provide more options for composition but haven't been able to.

So working within the constraints of the original capture I felt the best option was along what Gordon suggested. I experimented with a tighter framing as Fabs suggested but for me it loses the balance of the negative spaces in the upper left/lower right corners and overall rhythm. I also tried several variations of Julie's suggestion but ran into edges of the image or introduced other picture elements which I felt compromised the composition.

I really appreciate everyone's input, exploring the different options was interesting and hopefully will help me to do a better job framing with the viewfinder in the future.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1276/p6112413d1sm1copy.jpg

Thank you again!