Competition entry - a little help would be appreciated!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hey everyone...

I am thinking of entering this shot into a local competition under 'Abstract"...would like to gauge the BPN people's thoughts first...

So please tell me in all honesty what you think of this picture, and if you have any suggestions for improving I would love to have your input! :p

This shot was created early one morning when we went birding and the entire reserve was covered in fog. The dew drops on this spider web in the hide caught my eye and I played around with it.

I will post the original shot out of camera for comparison. I chose to frame the crop squarish as that gave me nice symmetry and corner-touching lines from the web, with the web core off-centre.

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 18-55mm IS @ 43mm
f11 @ 1/60 SS @ ISO-200
pop-up flash fired

[Morkel Erasmus]

here is the out-of-camera shot.
any other framing suggestions? I played with B&W but prefer the brown and red tones of the winter reeds in the BG.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Morkel, Good basic comp with a nicely muted backround. Where your taking a chance in the competition is having an OOF portion of the right side.Some judges will overlook it while others will want the whole image sharp...

[Lance Peters]

Hi Morkel - great advice from Dave - IMHO Love the beaded water drops, but not symmetrically strong enough to grab the viewers attention.

That said - it really just comes down to what the judges like on the day.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Nice composition, IMO the entire image would be stronger totaly sharp. Well done, let us know how it goes if you dive in - good luck!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Morkel,
For compositions such as this one, the entire spider web and water droplets have to be sharp for it to work...looking forward to the next one...:cool:

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments and advice guys...will rather look for another abstract in my archives to submit then...
:)

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Morkel. Lovely capture. I like the crop and would send it in as one never knows what they want or like on the day.:) Btw, what competition is it?

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Morkel I like the original with a little off the right side !! ... it looks good anyway you present it .. just hope the judges would understand the only way to have it all sharp is using a tilt/shift lens !! :) I'm sure you are going to do well !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Vida & Alfred! will keep you posted...