Reflections & Punctuation

[Rocco]

It's a great shot Rocco. Candid Coyote is starting to have a collection from you.

Thanks! He is, indeed. Lucky for him, I love shooting him. Will do it again in a heartbeat.

I like the feel of the shot, and conceptually it is a nice shot. A couple of problems that I see is:

• The dog is the highlight, in that he is front and center with his face clear and well lit. Where as, the mans head is down with the area around his left eye obscured by shadows and hair, and his right eye is completely blocked. IMO, this would work better if the shadow under the left eye was not there. The combination of the shadow and hair coming down along his left eye really creates an unfortunate effect that takes away from the the cheery feel of the photo. Although, I must admit, it is less of a problem if I open it up in another window and enlarge it considerably (which suggests you may be able to fix it in post). But at the size you downloaded it is distracting.

Pat! Thanks. I do see what you mean, and I agree. There were other shots where he was positioned better, and the dog wasnt, this being the best result all things considered. A composite would have been an easy solution, but we were under a ridiculously tight deadline to get it to the newspaper. (I found out about the shoot an hour before I got there, and had only another hour and a half after that to get the photo to the editor.)

• The insulation over the right tail light should be removed or hidden. I assume it is insulation... regardless, it is a bit ugly.

Not trying to tear you down, but you said you were begging for criticism, so I thought I would try to help (and learn a thing of two myself in the process of looking for improvements). However, like I said, I really like the feel of this shot... just a couple of minor problems.

Pat

This is the only of your points that I disagree with, but it's biased. I know the guy, and this truck is a character on it's own. It is ugly, yes. But I don't think it has to be pretty in this instance. Distracting a bit, yes. A non-issue for me, though.

I welcome being torn down! I appreciate you taking the time to look and comment.

Speaking of.. I often reach out to some of the more successful photographers in the industry and ask for CC. David DuChemin and Benjamin VonWong have both agreed to give me their thoughts on this photo! I could post them here for everyone to benefit, if you guys would like.

Thanks!

-Richard

[Rocco]

Been trying to work out a time with these guys for over a month now. We finally locked down the time and got a perfect window in the middle of a horrible day as far as weather is concerned. Lucky to find a tree that still carries leaves. (Not sure the breed.)



This was pretty straight forward. Had my subjects walk towards the camera. Camera left is a 64" PLM with diffusion, feathered towards camera a bit, camera right was a large softbox for fill, oriented horizontally to avoid filling in shadow on the grass. and of course the sun, behind and camera left. Both modifiers were PCB Einsteins triggered by the PocketWizard Power MC2 and PocketWizard TT5 on camera. Canon 7d, 17-55mm f/2.8 @ ISO 200, 1/250th sec, f/8 - 28mm.

CC Welcomed!

-Richard

[conropl]

Speaking of.. I often reach out to some of the more successful photographers in the industry and ask for CC. David DuChemin and Benjamin VonWong have both agreed to give me their thoughts on this photo! I could post them here for everyone to benefit, if you guys would like.

Thanks!

-Richard

Yes please