Another busy day at the beach...

[Brendan Dozier]

Overcast morning, ACR, CS5, crop, cloned out seals on rt, some seaweed & spots on seal, lightened open eye, added some saturation.

7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2.0x, HH
1/250
5.6
ISO 800

[Tom Graham]

Overall, nice work. I might be tempted to crop a lot off of left side to put more emphasis on flippers and head.
Tom

[Ofer Levy]

I love it - made me smile! I second Tom's suggestion.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

That's a funny image. .love that you are at the same angle.

[Marc Mol]

Love the thinking man's pose here Dumay! Great low angle with fine detail.:cheers:
TFS

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks, Tom, Ofer, Cheryl, & Marc, appreciate your comments & suggestions.

I went back and forth between the two crops last night, I think taking off the left does emphasize the scratching pose better, but I also liked the longer pano because it seemed to give a more lounging look to the seal.

[Ofer Levy]

I like the repost but will crop off the bottom to get rid of the oof seaweed that don't add to this image IMHO - it will aslo help in getting a more 2:3 ratio.

[Ken Watkins]

The repost is much better, for me at least.

[Harshad Barve]

and yet another excellent image Brendon
TFS

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Brilliant image , Brendon . Like the repost .

[Rachel Hollander]

Brendan - I prefer the repost but maybe with a tad more room on the rhs if you have it. Great pov, detail and pose.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brendan, nice chuckle to this, occasionally it's nice to have a bit of humour to an image.

The repost is better and I guess there are many variables on cropping this. Personally I would keep the edges clean (straight) with no vignetting and if you were to lose a bit off the foot of the image I might just take it to the seaweed as there is an imaginary horizontal line already there, anything more perhaps would be too tight. Also if you felt the urge I might just remove the OOF seaweed in the BKG above and just have a clean top half.

TFS
Steve

[Pieter de Waal]

You seem to have had fun with the seals Brendan. Like the colours and texture of the wet fur. The expression is nicely captured and says it all and I feel the seaweed adds to the image.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Super low angle and pose here Brendan! They sure gave you some good images...

I think the ideal crop for me is somewhere between OP and RP...:bg3:
I second Steve's suggestion to crop from the bottom somewhat and to lose the vignette.

[DanWalters]

Nice low angle and eye contact. Like the sand on the seal as well. Adds some nice texture to the image.

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks folks, much appreciated! It's laughable how much time I obsessed over this image and how to crop it. Want you to know that I considered just about all the suggestions as I was working on it. Most of the time, I think simplifying the image is usually the way to go, but sometimes I try to push myself to try different approaches I might not normally do. I do appreciate everyone's feedback, and am learning a lot from you.

[Steve Canuel]

Neat pose Brendan. I actually prefer the OP. I like the sand on the belly and how it leads to the fin and I also like the bit of color provided by the seaweed.