Mallard

I sorta like the image of the duck swimming in the red reflection. One person told me it was a better pic without the duck, or the water for that matter! What do you think?

Welcome to the circle. I am sure you will enjoy it. As for this image, I might crop a little off the top to get rid of the sky. I like the duck in the frame but I think it might have more impact if it was a little further away from center. The colors in the trees are great and do get most of the attention. I like it, John!

I was born in Alva, OK but perhaps we had too few trees there to see such autumn brilliance or perhaps I was just too young to notice.

 

My only suggestion would be to look at cropping the left just a bit to move the duck and the reflection a bit more off center. Other than that, it's a well caught image.

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of the trees here aren't very different from those in Alva, but this park has a few Sweet Gums that are spectacular in a good year.

Actually, I would like this better if you removed the duck, the water, the trees, and that funny floaty thing and replaced them all with bare naked ladies.

 

Seriously, I do see why someone would suggest cropping out the bottom. It would certainly make the picture follow the standard "rules" much more. I think it's bold to have the duck so close to the bottom of the picture, but it really does work in this image. I'm not at all sure about the further crops. Trimming the left side makes an already tall-n-thin picture even more so. Trimming the top moves the shoreline too close to the center. What the hell. It's already a pictue that breaks the rules. It works the way it is, so leave it or change it. With that tree there you can't hardly lose.

Well, I agree that a bare naked lady in the water instead of the duck would make an interesting picture, but I have a terrible time convincing ladies to get bare naked and wet and cold, all in public! So alas, I settled for the duck.

 

I had tried various crops before printing this picture, but left it as framed in the camera for many of the reasons you cited. It's one I keep returning to in hopes of finding a better composition.

i think the revised crop works better -- both aspects needed attention.

the taller narrower ratio becomes interesting with the duck positioned low in the frame. if you can do anything with selective sharpening to bring out the duck a bit, the overall picture might benefit further.

as noted in earlier comments, the tree(s) really make this picture, but it wouldn't work without the duck.

I agree. If the duck wasn't there, the pond and landing would have to go. I like the new crop that gets rid of the gray sky.

 

That duck was probably not the sharpest one in the pond! I'll try SharpControl on him, but he may be beyond help.

 

Thanks to all for the kind welcome and comments!