michaeljlawson

Nice work Jim! Sean if are willing to make such alteration, I have to say with that branch gone as in Jim's example, my attention is immediately drawn to the birds eye instead of just to the space between the branches. I think it makes quite an improvement.

I think it's an Eastern Phoebe like this one http://www.birdingmaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/eastern-phoebe1.jpg or this one http://www.dcwild.com/images/Woodland%20Birds/Eastern-Phoebe.jpg. Nice DOF, wonderful smooth background. The only thing I may do to it would be to clone out the stick in the upper right corner or crop it. May be hard to crop without cutting out the tail, so cloning may work better. Keep Shooting, Michael.

Hello Kim. One of my hopes for this year is to find some Owls to photograph, hopefully as cooperative as this one seems. I am not sure if you are anti-photoshop or not, but I took your image and did a quick levels adjustment, messed with the shadows just a little, sharpened it a bit and ended up with the image above. You may want to play with it some to give a a little more pop.

Hello Kym and welcome to Photo.net. You've captured a nice moment here. I would probably crop a little more of the over-exposed sky out and play with the Contrast\Shadows and try to remove some of the sun flare off the dog. I spent about 5 minutes playing with it and came up with this. It could be done better with the full size image to work with.

Looks like we were both out shooting autumn colors this weekend. I love the rich colors especially in the reflections. Keep Shooting, Michael.

I'm not sure if this is "As Shot" or edited. It's looks to have decent exposure, but it's too centered for me. My opinion is this shot would do better following the old "Rule of Thirds" philosophy. If you have cropped this from a larger original I would re-crop so he is more to the left and there is more space to the right or maybe see what a tighter Vertical crop looks like. Not a big fan of this style frame for this shot either. I've seen it work on some portraits, but I could do without it here I think.

Thanks for leaving a comment on my gallery. I like the thought process behind this. You seem to be paying great attention to the main subject in all your photos (in this case yourself), but seem to be bit less thoughtful of your surroundings and lighting. It's not easy to bring them all together (I probably shouldn't even criticize it, I do the same thing all the time). The washed out post would be less distracting if it had some color and texture. It tends to draw my attention away from you in this shot. The remnants of the fern are also a bit distracting and you may want to crop\clone them out of the shot. I like your placement in the frame. From an artistic standpoint I think you are well on your way to developing a nice style. Keep Shooting, Michael.

Hello there,

 

Glad to see you are still at it, and I think this one is your best shots yet (hard to choose between this one and the B&W untitled flower bloom). The contrast in this shot is great and the composition is pleasing as well. Keep Shooting....Michael

Hello Linda, I really like this shot. The eyes and expression are outstanding. I wish I could figure out how to get skin tones like this. I would consider removing the stray hair from in front of her right eye by zooming in and carefully using the healing brush or spot healing brush. Sometimes it's hard to remove from an eye without making it noticeable.

Close up shots can be tricky and since I don't know what you are shooting with or what the conditions were I'll just offer some basic advice. The general rule with closeup shots is to keep the eyes of your subject in focus. This isn't always easy, I miss all the time. Sometimes it's because you move a little, the wind moved the flower, or just that you focused on the flower instead of the butterfly (it's easy to do, especially with auto focus). Again, I don't know what you are shooting with. If it's digital, I would say take 100 shots if you have to (practice makes perfect). If it's film and cost is more of an issue, I would say slow down and think it through before you hit the button. If you are using a macro lens simply moving forward or back an inch is sometimes easier than using the focus ring. No matter what, enjoy what you are doing and keep shooting, Michael.

I like the perspective of this one, but I would crop out at least 50% more of the blurred out foreground. Leave enough to keep the perspective, but not so much that it becomes the focal point of the shot. Keep shooting, Michael.

I like the perspective of this one. I've been watching your work for a while. Keep shooting and sharing.

Nice shot, keep them coming.

Another amazing shot. Thanks for sharing.

Nicely done Ali. You captured and framed this beautifully.

I like the concept here. It's a very peaceful image. I think some more dramatic lighting or colors may make it stand out more, but it would likely loose that tranquil quality. If that's what you were going for, you got it.

Shawn, I really like this shot. It's nice to see an attempt to capture the motion and grace of a subject that is all about motion and grace, and not just another shot of someone in a nice dress standing on a stage. Thanks.

Nice Colors. I believe it is one of these (or at least related) BlueTitPhotos