Texas Snow

[OhGracie]

Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 106 mm
ISO Speed 100

How is the composition? Should I have included more or less of the big tree on the left? Also, what should I have done to get the background more blurry?
Oh yeah, one more question! What's a better name for this picture? I can not think of anything!!

Thanks in advance! I'm a total newb...this is my first post...I hope I did it right!
Jessica

[sartracker]

It's a nice picture but I might have put the focus on the tractor equipment. Maybe crop the trunk of the big tree out but leave the orange leaves in. To make the background a little more blurry, lower your AV as far as it will go (5.6 or lower) and focus just on what you want in focus, i.e. tractor equipment. Or you could blur the very back bushes and leave the bigger branches and leaves in focus so you would focus on the equipment and the branches. f/8.0 and higher tends to make just about everything in focus.

You can blur the background in photoshop but it would look better in camera. Move around side to side, back and forth, up and down to get different perspectives. It's your photograph and when you see what you like, take the picture.

You did a good job! Hope you'll post some more. Kitty

[EOBeav]

That hay rake would make a great subject. I hope you can get back here and shoot again, with or without the snow. One comp idea would be to get close up and use those intersecting metal parts to create some interesting patterns in your shot.

Here's a hay rake that I came upon last summer:

[SwissJon]

There's no hay rakes round here, so I don't have any to show you But I think "Winter Rake" or Rake in Snow" or something for a name.

As for composition. I would have moved the camera to the left so that the tree behind it is not interfering with the subject. I think I would also have moved myself forward, so I could use a shorter focal length, and see if I could take the picture without the branches of the tree on the right encrouching in on the picture.

One of the hardest things to learn is that when you're composing your shot, you need not only to pay attention to the subject, what it looks like and where it's being placed in the frame, but also wht there is in the foreground and background that might distract from the subject or interfere with it. Yesterday I went out looking for a photo, one in particular in fact, but someone had parked their car in just such a place that I couldn't take the picture I wanted. I had to climb half way up the mountain off the road to get the composition just so. It's very rare that you will find a brilliant photograph from just standing at the side of the road.. You need to be prepared to go walking in that virgin snow so you can compose your shot.