From where I sit in my home office, I see squirrels running on the fence of the property. During summer, they seem to enjoy eating all sorts of fruits, some small like apricots and cherries, some bigger like apples.
The fence is oriented to the east and is light is usually very generous in the morning. Depending on where I stand, I can play with different background colors ranging from different shades of green to different shades of blue, grey, or lavender.
Here is a typical sight in August:
This shot captured my attention. The light was interesting, showing details of the hair and the ear. It also shows a good story, the position of the hand and the eating action. The aperture was set to f/4.0, providing a nice background, and a sharp subject. I was standing at about 12 feet of the subject.
Nikon D50 • Nikkor 70-210 • 210 mm • 1/400s • f/4.0 • ev -0.67
8.27.2006 10:11PM
To make the picture more interesting (less common), I experimented with different cropping areas. I retained the following one and titled it “Going, Going, Gone!”.
I submitted this image in the Pictorial/Digital category on 12.06.0. The judge gave it the 3rd place, for it’s story, original use of the empty space, and the details of the ear. Most of the time, the main subject is supposed to be located in a central area of the composition, using a grid of 3 columns and 3 rows. Here The main subject is on the edge, and occupies 1/4th of the picture.
A note regarding cropping: I usually submit my images which require either an aggressive crop, leaving less than 2,000 pixels or a crop that doesn’t maintain a 11×14 or 12×18 aspect ratio to the digital contest. The reason is because printing on 11×14 requires a good definition, and because I don’t cut my own mats… shame on me! The image above was about 1400×800 pixels, and the aspect ratio is not standard. I therefore submitted it to the digital contest night.