Quote Originally Posted by Dylan8i
i know what you did, but it works for them.... just not all in a row like that ;-)

the top two and the bottom one seem pretty centered, and alot of excess on the top.



ps i like placing them on moss, or colorful leaves cause it adds more color and makes the pics seem not so dark. although it depends on the size of the critter.
Dylan,

the one third herp/two thirds OOF is occuring in increasing frequency in my shots - although I usually shoot by the numbers, I'm kind of liking the center-focused but thirds balanced formula. I'd shoot it at 28mm, but I am almost never satisfied with the bokeh from a wide lens and I have a thing for telephoto compression. A serious thing.

The out of my usual style that I was refering to is actually in post processing - I watched a fashion photographer burn a full daylight shot so that it looked like it was taken at night, which has me thinking a lot more about controlling my backgrounds and controlling contrast and shadows. These shots came out of the camera well enough for me to post anyway, but I spent a little extra time selectively controling the luminosity in order to isolate and present the subject better. The only one I am reticent about is the fox snake - I'm wondering if I was too heavy handed, or maybe not heavy handed enough!




as far as moss or other backgrounds go, I thought that the RR ties brought these together - they were all found under RR ties, on RR tracks, and the ties were innocuous enough to not distract attention with the small DoF. I think it goes either way - a totally inconspicuous setting, or an amazing fairy-land chunk of colored leaves, moss, lichen, or whatever else you can find.