Breaking the rules

[terrib]

I was testing out my new chair blind and my newly micro adjusted lens by taking bird on a limb pictures in the back yard. (I know you can hardly wait for those posts. ) Anyway, I noticed this Eastern Phoebe building a nest in our old abandoned chicken coop. The first picture is the way I originally processed it and posted it for my friends on social media. What I really liked about this picture was the lighting on the bird and that I caught it actually doing something. The crop I chose left space for the bird to look and I liked the lines, some repeating, of the various architectural elements.

While reviewing the image for posting here I revisited my reasons for cropping where I did and realized that in my effort to follow "the rule" to keep the bird from looking out of the frame that I was leaving out important elements in the picture. In addition, given a bird's behavior to watch for predators before entering a nest site, I believe it actually enhances the story to leave what the bird might be looking at to the imagination. The second image is what I believe is a better representation of what drew me to take the image in the first place.

Now if only I could make those decisions more quickly in the field rather than relying on cropping. I do give myself a break on this one as I was trapped in a chair blind too far from this subject that presented itself to have NOT cropped the final image. But more to think about next time out...

[Geoff F]

For me, Terri, bird shots, and insects as well, are predominately portraits so I follow the 'rules' for that type of photography. Although I normally just regard any 'photography rules' as merely average guidelines.

And there are often exceptions where an important part of the background needs to be displayed.

With this particular scene I would have probably cropped fractionally tighter on the top and right side than your second image. In fact I may well have gone for a 3 x 2 image ratio to concentrate more on the bird.

But this is one of those many exceptions when you should crop to whatever suits you. It is a good scene however you crop it!

[Mike Buckley]

I like the second version best. Also consider using a square format sized to match the height of the second version.

[IzzieK]

What John said...since John already said what I was thinking of saying, I will say that you told a good story here with those two shots. The bird itself is beautiful...

[terrib]

Thank you all for your comments.

Geoff, I, too, am prone to tighter crops on birds but I felt that in this case there was a story in including more of the environment. The reason for changing the crop and including the top right is that the nest that the bird is building in is up there, although admittedly it is not readily apparent to those that don't already know that.

So my reason for posting was to illustrate my thoughts on composition for a better story and that we should make conscious decisions about what we are trying to say and decide whether the rules fit that or not. In the end, it is still a matter of interpretation and expression for the viewer and the photographer so there's not a right or wrong choice, but I think it should be conscious one for the photographer.

Mike, thank you. The square crop and the vertical 3x4 crop were the first ones I tried when I redid this but in the end I settled on what you see in the second shot. I felt it didn't seem as chopped, seemed more balanced to me and included more of the environment that I was trying to show.

[Mike Buckley]

we should make conscious decisions about what we are trying to say and decide whether the rules fit that or not.

Bingo!

[deetheturk]

Beautiful image Terri,well captured

David