Hookers Sealions (added reworked version)

Hello Georg, I've been worried that I came off too harsh on my earlier critique of your work, please know it was not my intention to be too assertive. That's just my personality at times and should not be mistaken for unfriendliness. I like this sea lion image head and shoulders above the earlier post. I find the exposure, the detail, the pose and the interaction well done. And, the look on this huge guy's face is special. I've read that you've made your choice on cropping, but for me, it remains too tight - espeically left and right.

Early in my wildlife photographic experience, I obtained a 100-300mm lens and found myself living next door to Glacier National Park, where I hiked hundreds upon hundreds of miles with some of the tamest wildlife I have ever seen. Having had nothing but small lenses before, all at once I found myself with a new philosophy - if big is good, bigger is better. I had the dangdest bunch of body parts and mug shots you can imagine. Then I went out to impress the buying public. Results: total rejection! That's why to this day that I don't care for the tight or partial body shot on wildlife. There are exceptions. At any rate, this is my experience and it may give you something to think about. Good luck with your project.

Terry, I NEVER thought of your comment as unfriendly or too harsh! No way. It was completey objective and rightly too! The thing with the highlights came up in various comments and kind of caught me off balance. I never thought about it much before...
With this shot I'm basically with you that it might be too cropped, which is no big problem here, 'cause the originale file has more space all around, which is what I like best when i shot it. It just looked better in that smaller web post. Thanks for your time to comment, it is really appreciated.
Georg

Verena, Georg,

this is great and I would like to see the image with more room around it, because that was my first tought: It needs some room around, or a tighter crop...

much more powerful than your last image ...

Great image! Only small nit is the clipped breast and tail of the animal.

ok,ok here is a reworked version with space all around pretty much the original capture.
Is it better?
Georg

Very impressive shot of their interaction !

The sand in the air around the flippers combined with their postures and the fact you caught this at an awesome moment works really well. I like the original crop but might give it just a little more room on the chest to show the whole thing. I bet this would look awesome printed pretty big!.

Dave

Verena, Georg,

the original version with room around the Sealions is much better...

Wonderful image, I prefer the less cropped version.

I guess, in the end, I like the second version better. Both are stunners, and good work there. I lean toward the second because I haven't seen many sea lions, and it helps me to see the whole animal when I'm a bit unfamiliar with its conformation and such. If that were not the case, if I were instead very used to seeing sea lions, then I would prefer the first version. Cropping out portions of the animal to highlight and focus the attention on a specific behavior can have a lot of impact. As mentioned by someone before, going that tight route, for me, would have produced a tighter crop than yours.

Great photo Georg, fantastic action!

I like both versions.

Very nice! I love the action.

Impressive creature and capture

Congratulations on the EP award, Georg. Your repost absolutely wowed us! I realize we are not all the same, and we see things differently, and I suppose that is the way it should be. However, your second post to my wife, Kay, and I is considerably better. As a matter of fact, it is absolutely a stunner!

thanks Terry, it feels like you still worry about being too harsh. please don't, because for one, you weren't and I really milk much useful info out of comments like yours and second, yes we do probably see things different in some ways coming from completely different areas of photography. that's how it should be. (btw, don't ever dare to post an LF image on ESS... )
Georg

I love the interaction and your timing was excellent. The reworked version with a little more space is much more to my tastes. Can you add more space? The reworked version is not 2:3 ratio so unless you were using an Olympus system it can't be full frame.