Hi Bruce .... Well, it's an OK pic, nothing particularly special about it. For these old eyes it has a lot of flaws. While the background is nice and soft, showing fine bokeh, the background colors seem to "fight" the detail and subtlety found in the branch. The brightest parts of the branch, the tips, look burnt out to me, and the shadows, the underside of the branch, seem too bright. I'd like to see this whole print a little darker, maybe brought down in the editing software or perhaps with a little less exposure. If just the brightest part of the background were brought down, there might be a strong improvement.
I'm not sure about the crop. On the one hand having the space between the lowest branch tip and the bottom of the frame works fairly well, I keep thinking that by cropping the bottom of the frame to just about meet the branch tip you'd have a stronger graphic. Take a look at it in a 5x7 format and see what you think. Shel Bruce Dayton > This is one that I suspect people will either really like or see > nothing at all. Taken of an old (living) oak with lichen covered > branches. > > http://www.daytonphoto.com/PAW/bkd_1091.htm
