Response to In Your Face or Behind A Bush?

For Jeff: Personally, I'm not an advocate of "shooting from the hip," and I think this photo points it out perfectly. Although technically the shot is ok from the standpoint of being in focus and exposed ok, compositionally, I think its weak. That's why it's cropped. Unfortunately, for me, that only calls attention to its weaknesses. First off, we can tell she's sitting in a doorway, we don't need all that doorway to know that. Secondly, the subject has a pensive look, but much is always conveyed by body language, and here the subject's body is cut off in an unnaturally way. In a way that doesn't add, explain, or enhance our understanding of the subject. I think if you had crouched down and composed a picture, you could have made a really strong photograph instead of (IMUHO) an also ran. If you don't think it's weak, take a print and some tracing paper and draw over it until you get a composition you think is really strong.

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