Red deer stag

another in my series of small in frame deer picture, from a few weeks ago when i managed to find a weekend for photographing the rut, this is wild again but not from the hide this time.

40D + 300mm F4L + 1.4 extender
f5.6
FULL FRAME

Not sure this works for me as personally I find the stag a little lost in the frame - not because of the size but because he blends in a little too much for me. I also find my eye drawn to the lower right hand corner for some reason

you may well be right Richard, not 100% on this one myself, i do seem to be drawn to subtler images at the moment which don't necessarily translate well into other people liking them, don't know about the bottom right though

Jack- I can see what you are after.
Personally I feel this would be better with a close crop and the subject bottom right. I tried it and it looked ok . But as you say everyone to their own tastes.Maybe it is just the bracken behind the head thats the problem.
Cheers
JohnR

Jack I think your observation is probably correct and that having the stag bottom right would work better as a composition, but not sure how well the image would stand the crop based on the 40D and this is FF? Worth a punt & repost.

TFS
Steve

thanks for the comments guys, you may well be right about placing the stag bottom right, i hadn't thought of that, (the only other composition i tried at the time was a vertical with even more foreground) that size of crop would be way too much though i guess it is a case of learning for next time rather than improving the existing image
John i also agree the image would be stronger without the clump of bracken and gorse behind the head, as the head would stand out more against the darker trees

Hi,

I am afraid I am going with the general opinion on this one Jack.

I think more at the top and less foreground

Hi Jack, agree the stag is lost in the frame, I like the concept though and it should work well if and when you reshoot, its something Ive been trying to do myself with different subjects as I am a serial big in frame offender and its a lot more difficult to shoot small in frame than first appears, nice try though and its certainly tack sharp

Some good advice and comments have already been offered Jack, so I won't repeat in detail.

Generally speaking, the balance of "mush" vs details is a bit too much in this one.IMHO.

Cheers

Austin

Hi have been doing a lot of this kind of photography just lately and if the subject is small in the frame, finding a bland backdrop to enable it to stand out more is key. That dark patch just above and to the left of the stag's head would have done nicely, but of course manoeuvering everything to suit is not always possible. I like these sort of images a lot and I would encourage you to keep trying them. The idea is a good one and this image only just misses the mark. Nice try.
eric