"Huddled"

Herding sheep mingled with cows on top of the hill in La Thuile to

provide a nice outline to the background. I waited for the herder to

come into the frame (to the left of the image) and when he bent to

get a better view, I knew it was time for me to press the shutter.

I like the cultural aspects of this photo.  Even the road to the large house in the upper left is striking.  I think you've composed this primarily from left to right, allowing just enough width to include all of the important elements.  That may, however, have resulted in more foreground than you need.  I like the photograph; I just wish I could seek the sheep (and herder) more clearly.  I don't know if it's simply too far away, or if the image is somewhat soft; I think distance is probably the most likely factor.

Good observations, Stephen.  Thanks for your comments.  I also think that there is a bit more foreground than I would like.  However, the vantage point from which I took this photo was pretty close to the edge of another hill and I was using a long lens.  Also, I wanted to avoid bringing other distracting elements that existed in the top of the frame.  Removing the foreground, without altering the aspect ratio, might mean cropping out the herder in the left, which in my opinion, is an important element in this composition.  I liked your useful comments - however, as an art form, photographs are subject to various interpretations and most, if not all, are valuable inputs for the composer!  So, thanks for your time.

Chandra, I had a feeling you didn't have much more room at the top.  Another aspect ratio that I really like is 2:1.  I'm not sure if you have enough room at the bottom to crop.  I think the loss of a couple of sheep/cows would be o.k., but you don't want to get the sheepherder too close to the bottom of the frame.  Looking back, this is one where you might have wanted to take two horizontal frames and then stitched them together, with plenty of room on the left to make a good crop at a 2:1 ratio, showing all of the important elements and leaving enough room between these elements and the borders of the frame.