This one has been planned at my second frontispiece for months, but it sure fought me on the home stretch. Here's the full print, and you can see a detail version on the home page.
Shot April 2008 in Doha, with the 10D and 100mm Macro lens, 1/500th at f/4 and ISO 100. 24" print.
This was, incidentally, literally the first time in my life that I was manually focusing with any confidence. I find it miserably difficult at 50mm or wider, but wonderfully easy with my 100.
As for the print, have decided that my standard 24" 3x2 ratio is best, but not cheerfully. It was intended to be a 30"x15" fotoflot print throughout its process, but ultimately decided that the composition was too weak at that width (though not without merits). Making it available with some reservations, but what do you think? You can get a look below.
I quite like many qualities of this wider dimension (especially the way the tail lofts from the corner), and hated losing most of the flowers in the narrow version, but the emphasis has got to be on the face, right? (And this version already adds as much leftward as possible, stitched in from another shot, because the original frame had him far too much to the left.) It's okay at the full width, but not as strong as the 24" crop.
Incidentally, besides more than 20 hours spent on the image's tone itself, three different crops of it meant more than three hours of squinting at different options. I.e., I hate cropping because I can only be a ridiculous perfectionist about it. As I said the other day, millimeters matter.
Anyway, trying my damnedest to keep surprising you all. Hope you get a kick.
Yo just quickly (busy for today but got tomorrow more free) this is awesome! Though actually I prefer the wide one - will tell you about why tomorrow! But yeah, awesome!
Posted by: JNgaio | 04 November 2009 at 05:21 PM
Thorne!! It's been a while since the last time I talked to you, hope you had a nice birthday =P...
But, hey! This new themes of yours, I'm loving them, not that the model pictures weren't nice, but I'm more of a nature/scenery person, you can grasp so much beauty, deepness and wisdom from them!!
I'm really hoping you're doing ok, I'll sure give a check to all your photos when I get the time to relax and make smart comments tee hee!
~ Yaka
Posted by: Yakarin | 23 November 2009 at 08:51 PM
Ethan and I are enjoying the scenery shots. Nice bokeh! (How's that for your non-photog sister?) I like the closer up one. The little guy is too far away in the larger one. I think he gets a little lost with the big patch of flowers.
Posted by: Alyssa Morris | 21 December 2009 at 08:23 AM