Saturday encore ~ How my mind works

The wind wasn't blowing too hard Wednesday evening, and I was running short on blog fodder, but I only had 35 minutes before Survivor started, and I probably wouldn't get any good shots because I never do when I'm on a schedule and try to force things, but I went outside with my camera anyway.

I've always loved silhouettes and have been trying to perfect my technique. At 6:40 pm, this technique involves laying flat on the ground with my camera pointed up at the subject. If I'd waited until 7:20 pm, I wouldn't have gotten dirty, but then I would have missed Survivor. But that problem is going away because I'm getting a DVR today and will no longer be at the mercy of a broadcast schedule. Where was I? Oh, yeah. On the ground. Trying to take a good silhouette. But then I looked over to see what Hank was doing and the light falling on his face was beautiful, so I stood up and quickly fired off a shot before he moved.

Yes, the light is nice, but the composition is pretty ho-hum because Hank's eye is smack-dab in the middle of the frame and there's an obnoxious shadow from a tree cutting his neck in half.

So I zoomed out. The shadow looks worse, the composition is still boring, and now there's way too much going on in the background competing with Hank's handsome face.

He was distracted by a cow walking down the road and I thought I might have a few more seconds before he put his head down to eat, so I moved to my right for a different angle. The composition is a little more interesting, I like the 3/4 view of his face better than the side view, but that shadow is still bugging me and I think this picture would look better if there were more sky and less tree.

Got it. That's the one I wanted.