Sweet dreams are made of this .......... follow up

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks ,
as follow up the scene with the female and the bull being in a discussion about mating or better not....
As far as i can say ....... better not from the females POV.

I would have liked the male fully in the frame , but sadly i had the 500 and that was just too long . Moving back would have been possible , with hindsight.

Canon EOS 1D MK II n
EF 500 IS L
Tripod

F 5,6 ; Iso 200 ; 1/1500 sec , stopping down would have been clever , but...... long ago.

Cropped for comp from three sides.

Processed with DPP and PS CC

Thanks for watching and commenting to my previous post

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Andreas,

Fantastic colours and I just love the velvety quality of the subjects' fur...you have some amazing detail on the face of those adult females.

It pains me that the little one is right at the centre of the image, had he been positioned a bit to the left I would not have found him so distracting. What do you think of my suggested crop?

Love the warmth here and the light is just beautiful, well done Andreas!

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - lovely colors, warm light and detail but the image design isn't working for me with the oof pup in the front and the clipped male. I know you said you would prefer the full male too. I think you have so many great seal images that you have spoiled us so we expect perfection .

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks ladies at least you write a comment , the boys are very quiet at the moment .

By knowing this is not the greatest shot on earth , i still wanted to post this for rounding up the story of the previous post. And i wanted to be provocative , with Steve´s lion frame in my head , just wanted to know what you guys think.I am ok with the placement of the pup , but repeat the cut off male is less than ideal , if not saying it is unacceptable .It is one of those images where i think , as a standalone not that much working , but in combo with a story it is ok. As Steve said they have not done what i wanted them to do ........... i told them to wait until i am ready and showed them their and my exact position . But they did not listen .

Gabriela - i am 50/50 on your crop . And this are not 2 females , the bigger one in the back is the aggressor (male).

Anyhow at least you shared your thoughts and that is what its all about , thanks for that .

Rachel - you never stated that my seal images are close to perfection , i do not know if you are right .

Cheers Andreas

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thought you were provoking and challenging us, and immediately Steve's image came to mind...I knew what you were doing...But it's not the same... While your sweet little pup is right in front of me when I open the thumbnail (and I am forced to look at him first), in Steve's image there was a little "play", whereby my eyes wondered a little and I had to make up my mind where the focus point was...

In my RP above the eyes are not forced to look at the seal pup immediately (since the adults are more prominent and almost in the centre of the image). Let us see what the others say, and we can debate this again over a glass of wine in just over a month! Keep them coming Andreas, looking forward to more! And thank you so much for your help with my lions - much appreciated!!!

Warmest regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Gabriela i knew it is not the same , i thought somehow...... the same .Not copy though. I understand what you mean by your reply , but will stick with the wider version .
Still think this works evtl . in context with the other one , not that much as a standalone.

My pleasure with the lions.....

Cheers Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andreas - I said "many great" images and that we "expect perfection"... I didn't say that you have achieved perfection, yet.

Cheers,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Oh Rachel now i am kind of disappointed .But will work on the not yet achieved perfection ........ but feel it is still a loooong way though.

[Rachel Hollander]

Andreas - It is the pursuit that is the fun. If we achieved perfection I expect we would actually be a bit disappointed but not we're going off topic.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Rachel is right, it's all in the journey, Andreas, "photographically" speaking... If you got there and reached your goal you would have to look for something else...Fortunately, photography has so many aspects...not enough time in one's life to achieve it all, I think. It's just great to take off from time to time and go some place else, somewhere far from home, a land with different customs and landscapes, and especially wildlife. Us members of BPN are constantly bombarded with information on various places all inhabited by amazing wildlife, it is all up to us how we travel there and whether we become fulfilled by doing so as photographers.

Perfection? I don't think there's such thing as perfection, at least in art. Even though your work might get approval from us all on the forum, there will still be a critic out there to prove us all wrong, at least on some point. But it does not matter that much. All I care about is to be moved by an image. At times I overlook the techs because whatever I see in an image makes me feel small, in other words - it humbles me, it also makes me think : who put me here? Brilliant light, light fading, a sense of the sublime, an incredible/rare sighting, a small seal pup in the middle of nowhere, all of these things have the power to fill me up with emotion.

Thought I'd apologise for going off topic, but my second thought is, I think I am right on it: it's all about photography and how it makes us feel, spontaneously and in the most honest way expressing our opinions freely and accepting how others feel about our images.

Have a great evening Andreas, I look forward to your next seal image

[Andreas Liedmann]

Just one last off topic comment to finish this ........ girls .My last comment was just meant with a BIG ,both of you are 100 % right with your thoughts.I never had a feeling being perfect or even close to it.

[Brendon Cremer]

Hi Andreas, a little late here it seems but ill add my two cents worth in any case. I really like the detail and colours in the image, i do agree that the cut off tail doesn't work to well here, perhaps try a composite next time and then stitch the two together, it is often easier than trying to reposition. For me though the most distracting the oof youster in the fg, i which case repositioning would have helped but i do understand its not always possible.