PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

I made this photo last fall in the high country of northern Arizona. I am sort of up in the air about how it turned out. I feel that this has some merit, but I am not really sure what to do with it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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FunkyL Loc: MD

It's a pretty scene, but when I look at it, I'm confused as to the subject. You've titled it "High Country Aspens", but more than half of it seems to be ferns and grasses in the foreground. I would probably change it to a landscape format, cropping a little below the nearest trunk. That might give you enough of the attractive ferns in the foreground, while allowing the aspens more prominence. If you like the ferns, make a 2nd crop using just the bottom of the original so they can be a subject on their own.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

That’s my problem. I don’t know if either subject is strong enough to carry the picture like it is

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

Taking what FunkyL said to heart I made a crop of my original picture. So now if I rebrand it as ferns with aspen trunks or something like that here is what I came up with. I do think that it is a much better picture

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FunkyL Loc: MD

Poppie, you misunderstood my suggestion. Sorry if I was not clear; let me try again. You've cropped out the tops of the trees, and left the foreground ferns untouched. My suggestion is to leave the top of the original photo uncropped, and crop off the bottom up to a little below the base of the closest aspen trunk. This will leave you with a horizontal/landscape format, rather than the original vertical/portrait format. It will leave all of the trees and leaves uncropped , but significantly reduce the amount of the foreground ferns. Hope this helps.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

Yes that is true, i did not follow your exact instructions, instead I thought about what you said about subject. Then I thought about why I made the picture in the first place. My initial shot was because of the ferns. The aspens in the background are just a bonus to the frame. I wanted to highlight the ferns and don't really care about the aspens in that I thought the ferns were worth shooting as a stand alone subject. I appreciate your feedback just because it made me think more about what I really wanted others to see and not "this is the way it was shot so this is what I am going to show.
Thanks