Merry Christmas!

From the "St. Elmo" series here is a very nice looking picture of a christmas wreath on a cabin door.

The composition is good, the colors are good, especially the vibrant colors of the wreath against the muted old wood of the cabin. It's a very nice photo and it was taken just like anyone else might have taken this photo. But that's part of the problem, it's nice, but ordinary. I might not have ever seen this photo before but I've seen many like it. It would look good on a Christmas card but there's not enough interest for an aluminum print.

Big Horn Ewe

Sometimes it's easier than it should be. Capturing a bighorn sheep on camera shouldn't be as easy as driving down the road and looking out the window. 

On my way to St. Elmo for an afternoon photo walk I spotted this ewe out in a field by the road. I pulled over after driving past so as not to spook her and proceeded to take many shots of her moving around the field and eating. With the snow I really wanted an HDR image so towards the end of the shoot I gave a kissing sound to stop her. She stood staring at me long enough to get off three shots.

I do like this image a lot, a good focal point for the eye, some interesting light in the field behind her, and the depth of field, while not as short as I would like, is still shallow enough to make her stand out from the foreground and background. There just isn't enough context here, not enough visual interest to make this print worthy.