Old Buck

To be honest Jerry, this doesn't quite work for me. I personally don't like to crop legs like this, although I realize that there sometimes is no other solution. Cropping lower makes it look like a framing accident, cropping higher and you lose the legs. I also don't think the cluttered background works with your subject. The buck is relatively smooth and low contrast, and the background draws a lot of attention as a result. Hope that makes sense.

Hi Jerry,

I like the light here and despite the background being on the busy side, you have isolated the buck from the background quite well. I'm in agreement with Marsel that the crop/framing isn't optimal and the legs looked "chopped" off. My first thought is that both the orientation of the deer (almost looking straight at you and thus more vertical than horizontal overall) and the trees say "go with a vertical format" here (and I'm pretty sure it would have fit into the frame if you went vertical). When I'm out shooting and my subject (of almost all species) turns towards me - and thus has a dominant vertical axis (appears taller than wider) - I instantly turn my camera 90˚ degrees and shoot vertically.

Cheers...and thanks for sharing this...

Brad