Summer's End

[Joel Eade]

I set this up for a bird photo in my backyard but thought it looked nice without a bird perched on it. 1D MKIII, 300mm 2.8L, iso 800 f/4 1/800

[Julie Kenward]

Joel, nice try with this! It's always exciting to see new photographers experimenting with the simpler compositions. We'd like to think they are "easier" because they are simpler but that most certainly isn't the case!

As for what you have here...it feels a little bit overexposed to me, especially in the leaves. Your greens are a bit washed out even for being "sun kissed". You can probably bring the brightness down a bit in the RAW file and adding a little more saturation to the leaves and berries would also pump it up a bit.

Now, I like that you included three branches - that draws the viewer's eye across the top, across the middle and across the bottom. But...you left that top branch leaving the frame and that can tend to draw the eye right out of the photograph. If at all possible, make a clean break of all three branches - even if it means doing so with the cloning tool.

A little more DOF on that top branch would be nice as well. It's okay to have some in focus and some OOF but when it's the biggest, longest branch (the main focal point) that's out of focus that tends to leave the viewer a bit confused. Stop down and get them all in focus or leave the three front branches in focus and include some OOF branches behind the in focus ones.

Just a few suggestions for next time. Keep at it! I can tell you have an eye for this.