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OMG, I broke the rule of thirds

OMG, It still looks good :-)

Nice capture Monte. I think maybe the rule is just bent some... :) You might consider cloning out the OOF sticks in the LLC foreground. Other than that I think this works. These are tough birds to expose correctly in the bright sun but it looks like you managed just fine.

I was thinking about that, but I kind of like them, those are stubs where they cut back the old reeds. About an 1/1/2 hrs before sunset, even then its easy to burn the whites.

Have you considered placing this in vertical and cropping out the blurred plant on the left? If you want to keep it in horizontal, crop out the distracting plant. The plant in the lower left corner make my eye go to that corner of the photo every time instead of focusing on the bird.

 

The rule of thirds would help this photo. You can generally break that rule, and get away with it, if you fill the frame with the subject. In this case you have too much space in the wrong places and distracting elements within the frame that take away from the main subject. If you try cropping in either format you will see what other elements I'm talking about, unless you crop tight.

 

Try playing with it yourself and see if any of those suggested changes improve the photo.

The whole idea was to not crop it tight as thats what I usually do and I like the reflection of the reeds on golden water. In retrospect I could have cloned out the lower left clump.

Monte, I like it the way it is. You get the feeling of being right down in the marsh along with the bird. The dead clump and the live grasses are all out of focus causing the eye to look at the bird. Were you in a boat or was this taken from a dirt path?

Regards, Robert

Taken at edge of pond from path.

I don't mean to beat a dead horse but the plant on the left does not make you focus on the bird. The version I'm submitting does it better, but I'll stop with this one.

You're making me laugh now. Appreciate the input, but I think cloning out the stumps instead of the tight crop on the left would look better. Don't take the rule of thirds that seriously, to me its just a rough guide and I'm not really dead center. :o}

Me laughing too :-) ;-)I like the way it is, it gives the envionment of the subject IMHO.