Donald Crais

Busy background distracts from the subject, the spider. A larger aperture, 4.0/5.6 range, would really blur out the background. Might think about bringing a neutral coloured card to hold behind the web. the spider is a light bright – might try spot metering.Check It Out

If the guy’s face is the subject, ask yourself what is the empty background doing for the image? Suggest trying to crop in tighter and get his face to fill the frame.Check It Out

From a native: the geography is a little upside down. Lake Ponchartrain isn’t really a lake but an estuarial area being connected to the Gulf (salt water). The area where this image was taken has marshes and bayous. The swamps are found south of the Lake, basically south of I-10.
Looks like the end of Lakeshore Drive in Mandeville – good addition…[Read more]

If the person (s) has a site line to you, always a good idea to get some type of acknowledgement of approval before hand – there is so much paranoia these days about personal liberties and associated rage. Remembering the street photographer recently who took pictures of homeless people – believe it was NYC -they took particular exception and beat…[Read more]

Across the river 1 hr.jpg by Donald Crais on Light Stalking

Here is a higher res of the image.
Lestat was from the Old World and the really real Old World. There was no intent to connect the image and vampires. But since you made me aware, I may have to rename the image. Have to find the Sting song about vampires in the Quarter.
Looking…[Read more]

You do know this is where the vampire Lestat lived, if only literarily. Will get the hi res up presently.

When I first opened the image the left side was mostly dark: after scrolling reading the comments, the left side became lighter, more visible. The ‘cabin/shed’ doesn’t add to the subject/story – maybe cropping it out near the first big tree to the left of the woman. With that, might crop most of the water out – also not lending much to the story.…[Read more]

Agree with cropping suggestions, but I would also take some off the bottom – what is that dark area really doing for you. Might see what it looks like with a bottom crop but leaving the sky alone, cloning/healing brush out those stray clouds. This will give you different crop aspects- you might like the shapes. The tree line is a little blurry -…[Read more]

Probably not a pigeon given the feet and tail – some sort of hawk.
Difficult angle – can you make the bird turn around – LOL – takes some time to interpret as verionka pointed out which might turn some viewers away. Do we see a return trip to the same spot in the future?

Karamen –
ND filters, polarizers. Interesting no one mentioned those ‘foreign’ words – HDR. Not the garish kind, but capturing all of image’s features.
The second image IMO is stronger because the sky is softer, not as bright and distracting. the walkway/ramp now leads to the water, as opposed to the sand then after more travel to the water -…[Read more]

Agree with Ed on the use of PS or Elements – would try one of the blend modes, then lightening the faces of the two guys. To increase the relationship between the guys and the sun, would limit a lot of the scene with a panoramic type crop – off with much of the top and bottom. One of the reasons to take multiple shots – works better if guy 1 isn’t…[Read more]

Like the horizontal image with the two falls better and all that have been posted. As was mentioned in an earlier post, not everything we take pictures of, no matter how hard we visualize, compose and post-processing will be an interesting, good image. A good snapshot reminder of where you have been: nothing to print large and mount on the wall.…[Read more]

Agree with fidelito on the focus – focus on the face/eyes with a shallower depth of field to draw attention there, but leave his legs and feet in: I see it as adding the ‘bon temps roule’. It has a sense of place with the fence. The HDR effect washes out the image. The close up could use some darkening in the background: try it in B&W also. Hope…[Read more]

This is your ‘canvas’ – you put in and take out what you want to make the image what you want. That said, the corners with the blue and green are distracting. A close up or marco type shot might get you what you want. Would try to shot various POVs – remembering symmetry in the image. The overall image is soft, so a less windy day, a tripod…[Read more]

Continuing the ‘taming the wilderness’ idea, without images of how the wild is being tamed, the masses would have no idea. So as a photojournalistic image showing the juxtaposition of wild/tamed this could work. The snow on the right side is a little bright without structure, maybe some burning. A little too warm/orange.