Horse portrait

[CaraRose]

I took this on Sunday while playing with my new (used) camera. I'd like to hear any opinions. I tried cropping a bit, could someone let me know if they think the crop is an improvement?

[ACArmstrong]

Can you give us some specs for this shot?

Just on first glance, I might crop it a little tighter, so that it looks like the horse is standing in complete profile.

[Young Shooter]

no comment on this, its to centered and dont show much for me

[gahspidy]

Cara,Iremember you once posted a pic of a horses eye. It was very effective and I liked that shot. I believe that was some time in the winter. Glad to see you back.
I like the horse profile shots and think you can have a good image here with a different crop.I would suggest cropping the original from the right side so that the horses body is out and it would appear as if the horse were standing sideways to the camera. I think this is what ACarmstrong was suggesting as well.
I would love to see you do some more really tight shots of these great animals, like the eye shot again . . .

[CaraRose]

Can you give us some specs for this shot?

Just on first glance, I might crop it a little tighter, so that it looks like the horse is standing in complete profile.

I took it using a Minolta 3xi I recently bought on ebay with a Minolta 70-300mm zoom. I was using a wide aperture, though I don't recall my exact settings.

I was actually going for my own version of a "quarter horse" shot-- quarter horses are commonly shot from behind with the horses head turned in profile. This exaggerates the rump and quarters. I'm not entirely fond of this kind of portraits-- the exaggeration on the hindquarters is just too noticable, but I do like the idea of shooting from behind with the head in profile. I was trying to soften the effect a bit so the quarters weren't as exaggerated by cropping part of the body and quarters and blurring them out somewhat so emphasis remained on the head.

Unfortunately, I jumped the gun because I was afraid Shadow was going to move and didn't pull back enough to get as much of his body as I intended.

Anyway, how's below for a crop?