“Lost in the Sand” by Tina Chalfant © All Rights Reserved 2022 ____________ “There You Are” by Tina Chalfant © All Rights Reserved 2022
This photo was taken before I knew anything about photo composition (except “that looks good to me”), but that is not the whole story for why the original is framed the way it is. First, to the immediate right of the frame was a fisherman that I did not want in the photo, which is why the pelican is nearby. They are not above begging for a free meal! Second, I spent more than a few minutes inching up on my subject and had determined that I was as close as I could get without causing him to fly away.
The crop succeeds in emphasizing the focal points of the photo (the pelican and the sunrise) by using the rule of thirds, leaves out all the unnecessary beach, ocean and sky, and uncenters the subject. I tried to be aware of where the horizon line fell in the frame; leaving the brightest light slightly above the top third line so the foreground would be highlighted. In order to display the images side by side, I had to reduce the resolution to a width of 400px.
Now, if you can forget that I told you about begging the fisherman, doesn’t it look like the pelican is enjoying the sunrise?
Hi Tina,
I love the fun fact that the pelican had a reason to be looking to the side, that’s so fun! I will say, as much as I enjoyed the new crop, I might’ve zoomed in further on the pelican to really change the meaning of the photo. Maybe if he seemed he was really big, he might look as though he was a giant, searching to eat and destroy the nearest fish. This might’ve changed the meaning of the photo even more, making this begging pelican even more suspicious. However, this photo does apply the rule of thirds well and utilizes space very well.
Hi Tiana,
To say you took this without knowing what photo composition was you did a very good job. I love how the sun is shining so bright in the corner. It is a very peaceful photo. You are absolutely right in saying that we would not have noticed the pelican if you did not say something about it. It seems as if the pelican is just chilling on his own. You did a good job of choosing what to crop in the photo. I really like how both the pelican and sun follow the rule of thirds. The cropped photo makes a connection between the sun and the bird. Good job!
*Tina