[Leica] Aaron's PAW 45: Duke Campus in November

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Aaron Sandler showed:
Subject: [Leica] Aaron's PAW 45: Duke Campus in November


> This week I'm showing a 6-pack of photos (scroll down to see them all) > 
> in which I try to capture what I've been seeing.
>
> Feel free to let me know whether I've succeeded or fallen short!  :)
>
> http://www.duke.edu/~ajs2/PAW/2005_45/index.html<<<<

Hi Aaron,
First choice because it pops off the page with a good smack! :-)
"Gothic light!" Absolute first choice, well seen, well executed! Great 
light.

The foot is a no brainer and I'm surprised you posted it considering your 
ability to see, shoot and present good material.

Next time I'd try to make something out of the leaves and foot path stones.

>> Allison showing Orion where we got married.<<

I'd like this shot much better with a tighter crop. Not much. Cut the bright 
sunlight area at the bottom, take it right off at the shadow line of her 
legs and sun lit area.

Now the eye attention goes directly to your wife and it captures a much 
better feeling over all.  A nicer light/shade effect.

All you need is that bright area gone and now you have a solid photograph 
with feeling because your eyes are not drawn away from the main subject. All 
I did was scroll down enough to cut it off and there was the magical moment. 
;-)

And despite people who say, "I never crop! I do it in the camera!' Yeah 
right, and that means they've never worked at photography for a living while 
making instant improvements to create a "front page picture" and not a page 
13 waste basket shot! ;-)

Have a look and I'm sure you'll be surprised at the positive difference it 
makes.

>>> Light in the Duke Gardens.<<

Very well done while making the light work beautifully. Well framed and 
executed.

However!  :-( A nit picking thing. :-(  But it's nit-picking things that 
people miss that make a shot really work or just sit there looking sort of 
OK.

Dead centre bottom edge of frame there are some highlighted green leaves in 
a sort of horizontal line. Look like fern leaves. Right here is where you do 
the same thing as in the Allison and Orion photo, trim them off very 
carefully, you do not want to take too much and it makes a big difference. A 
small thing, but it only takes a second to correct and makes a major "eye 
line" difference.

Over all? A fair to middlin' effort for a walk about seeing things.

We're looking for more.:-)

ted