Mutual Fascination

Nice capture of this seal. The comp is a bit tight and would prefer a bit more room at the top and right side.

Hi Kumar,

I wonder who was more fascinated? I like the looks of this sand-covered little beast (a young seal I presume?). I personally find these types of poses tough to crop and/or frame. I'm left wondering if the original capture should have been in the vertical format or, if you have enough pixels to work with, if a vertical crop would work better. I'm thinking this because for me this image is all about the head region (i.e., a natural portrait) and what's on the left side of the frame adds little to my appreciation of it. Instead, I think going vertical and, in doing so, cutting off the bulk of the left side of the frame, plus moving in closer would produce a stronger image. If possible, I'd also experiment with slightly opening up the shadows on the left side of the seal's head (right side of the frame) - those D3 files are quite malleable and a lot of shadow detail can be extracted without adding appreciable noise.

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

What a cutie! The fact that its head is all covered in sand adds to the cuteness. Like Brad, I also feel vertical would have been the way to go here. That combined with a slightly lower angle and the possibly the inclusion of its flippers would have made this even stronger IMO.

Hi Kumar, i like the details visible in the larger version as well as those big black eyes, but i'm not sure about the composition - Vertical? more room on the top? a tight crop may be? - i don't know, but surely i will experiment a different cut.
Cheers Luca