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Any comments on how you would crop this photo. Click here for photo

The problem with cropping this photo is that there are several competing centers of interest placed so tightly together that something or another has to go. Between the leaves of the tree, the trunk, the lake and hills in the background, and the bathing birds, I'm not sure it's clear what to sacrifice for the others.

 

Generally, I like the crop you started with if only because it gives you lots of details to look at without feeling too busy, and no one element dominates the scene. I think your second crop deemphasizes the tree trunk in a way that doesn't serve the photo well.

 

 

on a second look it occurs to me that losing the hills and sky in the background also greatly reduce how open the space feels, and I can't imagine you'd want to make the impression of space in an outdoor photo like this feel constrained.

I think you generally have a hard image to crop further. The tree dominates the image almost entirely with the ducks , water and background taking a back seat. That being the case, any crop of this image is difficult.

I think Id have rather you stepped ten feet to the right, gotten more water and scenery and wildlife in to the image and had the tree a secondary aspect of the image.