how would you crop this?

[forestgnome]

I would take a little off the bottom and left. I thought it would be a nice learning excersize to let others crop and/or comment.

I've been stalking a few beavers lately.

happy spring

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Is there a "Swimming in, Swimming out" corollary to the "Walking in, Walking out" rule? If so, then you want him (her?) swimming in, I would think.

Tim

 

[NewHampshire]

My take:

I wanted to give the beaver some room to the upper left, lower left and lower right to "swim" into. Kind of has me going "gee, where is he going now".

Brian

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Nice picture. You did a good job composing the beaver within the frame. You want to have space on the left and bottom for the beaver to swim through the frame.

My first priority would be to crop a little off the top -- perhaps down to and including those out of focus bubbles above the tail. They compete just a bit with the beaver. -- Like Brian just did.

Then if you wanted you could optionally crop a bit off the bottom and the left, but not too much. I would keep the diagonal line through the center length of the beaver's body and nose aimed at the lower left corner of the frame (as you currently have it).

 

[Grumpy]

I would take a little off the bottom and left. I thought it would be a nice learning excersize to let others crop and/or comment. ...

Can't resist a cropping question and exercise!

I think your instinct is good on where/how to crop this. It can use a little overall "tightening." Take a good bit off the left, less off the bottom. You might also try taking a small slice off the top. The trick is to make the beaver really dominant, but not to completely remove it from its environmental context.

G.