james_fleming2

Wow, amazing picture. I'm just getting into landscape photography, and have a few technical questions.

What was your 'middle' tone that you metered off? Did you meter the foreground as middle and then subtract a stop from that reading, to 'place' it one under?

And for the sky, did you spot off the brightest part, or somewhere else?

cheers

Very nice lighting, beautiful subject. I find the strip of background on the right side of the picture a bit distracting, her stright hair accentuates it. Maybe a tighter crop would help, or a wider aperture to blur the background more, a chair, or perhaps her other shoulder.

I like the stray hair on the left cheek, too.

Good choice of subject, but why not get a bit closer, strike up a conversation and take more a dynamic shot with a wider angle lens, say 24-35mm, from a low angle, with a few of the other guys in it too. Fill up the frame with interest, get heads at different heights, some strong diagonals leading in and out of the picture and towards you key points of interest would lend more depth.

You could probably have an interesting caption/story as well, if you had a chat for a few minutes before you pulled out the camera.

I can see the colour symmetry with the reds and oranges, but most of the lines are vertical, leading your eye up into the trees, the empty blue sky, and the patch of green grass just on top of the white-tipped cone. The guys raised arm 'blocks' the line of the girl's gaze, cutting it in half.

I hope this will be helpful to you. I've made a lot of comments because I don't see the point in saying "I don't like the composition" without itemizing the things which(IMO)are and aren't working!

I love the two sets of four legs, especially the foot extended top left. Lots of little corners and angles, too.

Critique? If you'd stopped down a bit, the foreground could've been in focus too, flattening the perspective and making the picture even more abstract. Also, it's basically monochrome, so why not simplify even further and go B&W- just lines, angles and positive and negative space.

But those are minor criticisms, I love your image and originality.

a few days after my son took his first steps, he was up on the chair,

wobbling and waving his hands in the air. It was the best place to put

him for a shot, as he couldn't move about.