Click the image above (reommended) for a larger version!
Technical Photography Stuff: Cropping: Members of the photo club I belong to (Bay Area Photo Club) submit large prints (typically at least 11X14) on our monthly critique night. It makes sense because a large print makes it easier for the judges and other members to view the print. One negative associated with always needing a large print to present is that it trained me early on to not do much cropping for fear of losing too much detail to print a good quality large photo. It has been an unexpected pleasure of blogging that I now have the option of using photos for posting on my blog that are significantly smaller than the original capture. The image I posted today for example is approximately a 25% crop of the orignal and I like it a lot because of the moment it represents! If I wasn't a blogger now I wouldn't have had a use for this pic because I wouldn't be able to use the small crop for a large print. Being able to crop and use portions of photos has in turn given me even greater insight into what makes a good composition in the first place and that in turn will allow me to compose more shots that don't require cropping! It part of the circle of life I guess! :-)
Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 17-55 f/2.8 zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Topaz Adjust Plugin - "Vibrance" > Cloning to eliminate an empty chair and other distractions > Merge Visible to New Layer > Filter Distort Lens Distortion Vignetting
