Compositional strenght of this shot?

[nowakchr]

Hello,
I took this photo when I was in Southwest Colorado a few weeks back. I understand the rule of thirds but I failed to utilize it for this shot. The following picture is full size, no crop, so I don't really have any room to change the composition by cropping differently. Does anyone have any opinions of the composition of the shot?





Heres the link just in case the embedded photo doesn't work.
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2986/iceclimber.jpg

[jdepould]

I think your instincts are right with regard to the rule of thirds thing. Did you try cropping and it just didn't work? It looks like you might have enough to come in on the top and left sides.

What kind of focal lengths were you working with?

[liz.h]

First off, this is a neat shot! The focus is crisp on your subject, the colors are really nice and the natural lighting almost looks like a spotlight on your subject. And it certainly doesn't seem an easy shot to get. (I assume you were climbing as well.) I love the icicles in the shadows as well.

The composition could use some work - I think with the subject being so small, he gets lost being in the center of the photograph.

I think you can go at the composition of a shot like this from one of 2 different angles: "look how far he's come" or "look what he's got ahead of him". Meaning you could change the mood of your shot with the composition here. I think it might be neat if he was towards the lower left corner of the shot, with more of what he's climbing upwards to showing (I'm saying this not knowing what is outside of the shot, so this may not be appropriate). This would also cut out the tree and some of the darker space, which I feel is distracting from the subject.

Also, I think the tree distracts from the size of what he's climbing as well, with it being closer to the camera. So the shot may be more impressive without it.

Thanks for sharing!

[callen2806]

I completely agree with liz.h. Lower left corner would be a good placement for the climber. It's often good to leave picture space in the direction the subject is moving. This give the viewer a sense of where he/she is going and also allows you to use the rule of thirds. In addition, the shadow areas of this photo are too dark to have any meaningful detail, so cropping them out doesn't detract from this already great photo.

[autofocus]

Does this work for you?

[curmudgeon_01]

While I agree that it is usually nice to have more space in the direction the subject is moving/looking. However, in this case I like seeing more of the climb behind the subject. I would probably crop the top and left side.

[elauderdale]

I really like this, it's a very cool shot. Composition wise it could be just a little bit stronger. I would have liked to have seen the climber with how much he had ahead of him to climb. Good picture either way. My one question to you is, where were you situated when you took this shot?

Also, is it just me but, I keep staring at this shot and keep getting a slight "tilt shift" feel to it.