Frog and Mosquito

[Christopher Miller]

Here's another frog image that I took at the small pond on our property. Interestingly, I've noticed that most of the frogs tend to have mosquitoes biting them like you see here. I've even noticed mites and noseeums on them at times. Any comments and critiques would be most appreciated.

Olympus SP-550 UZ
f4.5 @ 1/40, ISO 200, -0.7 EV
Aperture priority mode, pattern metering, cloudy WB
Processed in PS CS2; cropped, curves adjustment, slight saturation boost, toned down the highlights, noise reduction, and some cloning to remove a few distracting spots

[Dave Mills]

Hi Christopher, Nice low angle and taking the frog off center. Nicely blurred and colored water with the insect adding interest. I would crop the image down to just above the ring behind the frog. Not sure if I like the ring behind the head. See what others have to say....

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Hi Christopher, I really like your image. I like the positioning of the frog using the ROT. Also, I agree with Dave on the nice low angle; it makes the image more striking. At the very top right, it looks to me like two big eyes (yes, I'm sober!). I guess it's some kind of an illusion, but I find it quite distracting. You might try a slight cropping at the top to get rid of them, or just clone out those "eyes." I don't mind the ring above the head.

Ricardo

[Gail Spitler]

I like this a lot - the mosquito is a terrific addition. The sharpness of frog and its reflection are super . The ring just above the frog seems fine to me, but the blurred brown circles and the third circle in the URC do seem to distract.
Nicely done
Cheers
Gail

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Christopher, I like this one a lot. I agree with Dave about the crop. I think it would help bring the eye down to the frog. I think a bit more NR on the bg would make the image stronger. I think the ring above its head adds to the natural history aspect of the image. Well done!

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks very much everyone for the comments and suggestions. I decided to keep the crop as is because I like the comp, so I cloned the two circles up at the top and ran a bit more NR on the BG. What do you think?

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

With the repost, I think you've got a winner, Christopher! I understand completely why you left the original crop.

Cheers,
Ricardo

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great composition. I'm glad you didn't crop, I think it would have made the image too much into a pano. IMO
Congrats

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks Ricardo and Oscar. Much appreciated!