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A grab shot on the beach in Weymouth last year.
I don't know the people and wasn't interested in getting them in the shot. The Donkey was the picture for me especially the way his feet are planted.
Little tone mapping in photomatix to give the pic a little punch.
Your comments please.
Mark
| Brand: | Sony |
| Camera: | Sony A350 |
| Lens: | 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Date Taken: | 8 Apr 2012 - 2:10 PM |
| Focal Length: | 300mm |
| Aperture: | f/6.3 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/640sec |
| ISO: | 100 |
| Exposure Mode: | Program AE |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Flash: | Auto, Did not fire |
| White Balance: | Auto |
| Title: | The Stubborn Mule |
| Username: | 
mark2uk |
| Uploaded: | 23 Jan 2013 - 9:11 PM |
| Tags: | Beach, Donkey, General, Sony alpha, Stubborn mule, Tonemapped |
| VS Mode Rating |
100 (0% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
An interesting one Mark.
I can see what you mean about the donkey, but from the picture the thing that really suggest that the donkey's being stubborn is the taught rope and the fact that the handler is walking forward. So, for me, the people have got to be part of the shot. And with the handler decapitated, it misses something. It would have been interesting to have seen the expression on the handlers face, at the donkey's stubbornness, for instance.
Maybe, if you really wanted to concentrate on the donkey, you could have done it in portrait.
But then it would have just been a donkey with splayed legs.
So I think that the people, or at least the handler, including his head, 
have got to be part of the shot.
Pretty good for a grab shot.
I agree...the shot should include the main players, ie the handler and the rider, complete. Without them, you don't get the whole story of the donkey refusenik, just one with odd-looking legs.
The tonemapping, rather than give the shot 'punch', actually robs it of it. All you do with tonemapping like this is to reduce the range of tones, sometimes so they are all the same tonality, and makes it look a very low-contrast image. There are nice vibrant colours here, which are now muted, and I'm not sure what's happened to the out of focus areas, or even if you've done something to them, but it looks like the shot's taken through the bottom of a bottle (If you're familiar with the rendering of a Leica Summar, this is very much like it).
The camera settings look fine, and it isn't camera shake or incorrect focus, but it looks selectively defocussed, in an odd way, sorry.
Nick
You need the people in. The donkey may be your main subject but the part figures do not help at all, particularly the boy rider. Tone mapping does not increase punch, it tends to do the opposite and the tonal range is strange in places.
The tones looked wrong straight off, and things could be a little sharper. Be very careful with tone mapping, it rarely seems to add much to me and needs great care.
Paul
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