IMG SRC="http://www.spiritone.com/~kclark/miscart/640b.gif">

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), September 02, 1998

Answers

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), September 02, 1998.

I like the composition and I especially like the colours, but the depth of field is a bit small and the to the right of the critter's left eye is confusing. It's hard to see where his face ends and the background claw begins. A smidgen overexposed, too...?

-- Steve Leroux (steve@bigadventures.com), September 02, 1998.

I agree with Steve's L. comments regarding the eye-claw confusion. Cropping off a bit of the right side to make the image square removes some destracting elements . The strong shadows and highlight suggest a flash was used. More diffused lighting might have been better. The strong shadows under the legs make things confusing.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), September 02, 1998.

Let's see, it was shot at f22, in daylight (no flash), with a macro lens and a tripod. Changing to a better angle would have caused the crab to move and I would have lost the shot. It took almost half an hour to get his trust to allow me to take this one (I shot six frames), and then I had only a minute before he retreated back to the shadows, not to be seen again (probably waiting for the nosy invader to leave so he could sun in peace ;>).

BTW, the bright spots in the scan are simply the limitations of the Photosmart which always has some problems with highlights...there is detail in the chrome...

Yes, I would have preferred an overcast sky but darn it, it just wasn't listening (and rigging up a diffuser would have resulted in not getting a shot at all).

Keith

http://www.spiritone.com/~kclark/

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), September 02, 1998.

This was covered in a recent thread by Bob himself: too bad about your difficulties, but there are no points awarded in photography for effort. It's not a particularly strong image, and the points made by the previous posters are valid ones. If you don't want your image criticised, don't post it. It's a critique forum, not a praise forum or a sympathy forum or a pity forum.

-- Mark Ciccarello (mark@ciccarello.com), September 02, 1998.

Keith,

Many of us are fully aware of the heartbreak of a great subject in lousy light or ugly surroundings. I don't know how often I've held onto an bad image of a subject I really liked and maybe never expected to see again. That is part of maturing as a photographer.

I suggest you keep these images for a while, but that eventually you will have to learn to edit remorselessly, ruthlessly. Unless you have a vested interest in this particular crab, edit it out! The longer you put off doing the painful editing, the harder I suspect it will be to do.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), September 02, 1998.

It's a better crab-in-habitat shot than some I've seen published. The barnacle behind the eye tells a bit of a story in itself. The positioning of the subject in a fold in the algae implies a crab's characteristic sidewise motion. Too bad electronic media punches up contrast, as I suspect this chrome is much better exposed than it looks here. (Judging by this and Mr. Clark's previous postings I'd say he has no problem editing images).

-- Richard Shiell (rshiell@lightspeed.net), September 04, 1998.

Keith, I think this is quite a strong shot, and wouldn't dream of editing it out if I had taken it. Just the texture and feel of the matted vegetation the animal is on gives a great environmental context. The color is vibrant, the focus is sharp, the pose is interesting and appropriate for illustrative purposes - perhaps less direct lighting would make it a bit better, perhaps not. I guess I'm among those that photographs not only to try to capture "moving" images, but also to record accurately the incredibly cool stuff you see when you're in the field. You've done that superbly. Peter

-- Peter May (peter.may@stetson.edu), September 04, 1998.

I think we all understand the difficulty of getting some shots, but the lighting and contrast of this image is way too strong. For a while I too thought a flash was used. I think a light diffuser to blcok some of the sunlight out would help. But I guess you need an assistant to hold the diffuser up in this case.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), September 06, 1998.