[Leica] C&C solicited for show entry

[leica_r8 at hotmail.com (Aram Langhans)]

8x10 for me, also.  I don't like loosing the green patterns on top in the
11x14.  Core crop is nice, too, for some different proportions.

Aram

-----Original Message----- 
From: Howard Ritter
Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 7:54 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] C&C solicited for show entry

Hello All?

I'm planning to enter my first show ever, the annual Healing Arts show put
on by and for the local medical community in March next year, open to
entries from the graphic arts. I selected a photo I took at Pictured Rocks
National Lakeshore of Lake Superior on the UP of Michigan on a short trip
there last year. The subject is a wave breaking on a multilayered sandstone
shorline. (OK, OK, I can hear your eyes rolling now. What new way is there
to show a wave breaking on a shore? Well, I think this is one.) Because the
purpose of the trip was not to go to Pictured Rocks or to take photographs,
I wasn't expecting to encounter any subject that would benefit from FF, so
the only camera I took was my Lumix GF1. Lesson learned (not for the first
time). The GF1 is a great little camera, but the degree of the crop here
really would have benefitted from the larger sensor and greater number of
photosites of a FF camera.

The viewpoint is an observation platform about 300 feet above the water, at
the top of a nearly vertical cliff, explaining the perspective. I have
uploaded four photos to the Gallery
(http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Fotos/). One is the full frame,
taken at 45mm (90 equiv) containing a good deal of foreground shrubbery. I
started to crop down to clean the worst of this out, but as I worked, I
realized that the picture works best (for me) as an almost abstract
composition with the shore, the breaking wave, and the colors of the lake
bottom forming a nicely proportioned and colorful array. I think this is an
unusual perspective for this subject, and is the reason why I think it's
worth showing. The other three are crops.

The first photo is the full frame. The second is the largest crop I could
get that contained only a small amount of foreground clutter that I could PS
out (some of which I've already done) and preserved all of the green water.
The problem with the core crop is that I don't like the near-square
proportions much?but I like all of the parts of the composition. The other
two are crops in conventional print proportions, each using one of the full
dimensions of the core crop. The 11x14 is the proportion I find most
pleasing, but even though it occupies the full horizontal dimension of the
core crop, it leaves out a lot of the beautiful green waters and some
shoreline detail.  The 8x10 is about as near-square as I find pleasing to
look at, and includes all the water, but its portrait orientation is at a
right angle to the flow of the picture elements. But I don't think that's a
deal-killer, and the 8x10 may be better in that it comes closer to
conforming to the rule of thirds. And I like the off-center location of the
most prominent part of the wave in the 8x10 crop, as well as the inclusion
of more interesting texture and detail on the shore. Right now I favor the
8x10.

I'd appreciate C&C, especially on what might look best framed and on a
wall?the square core crop, the 8x10, or the 11x14. Or any other cropping and
proportioning suggestions.

Thanks in advance.  Merry Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah) to all, and to all
a good night!

?howard