For people who think the camera matters, the egret was shot with a Pentax KP with a Sigma 150-500mm lens mounted on a Benro tripod with a Lensmaster gimbal.

Full disclosure also requires me to admit that I was using my Helavo all-terrain rollator with a Diet Coke in the cup holder.

Amen

Thanks for playing my simple, little game.

First, allow me to explain the photos. Photo A is the original, uncropped photo — not a thing done to it. Not quite the composition I would want, but when capturing birds, you don’t always have the opportunity for careful composing. Photo B is just a horizontal flip of this original.

Photos C and D made use of Photoshop’s new Generative Fill feature to add space in front of the bird, Then the space behind the bird was removed, but keeping the same 3:2 ratio for the image — “C” being the original orientation and “D” being the flip.

So there was no “resizing of any of the 4 photos — in essence, the bird was simply moved from one side to the other.

At this point there are 34 responses. Some are snarky remarks from folks who don’t want to participate, but feel they must belittle others. Here’s another easy game — guess who these posters are.

Interestingly, no one chose Photo A or B, and Photo D has just one more vote than Photo C while there was one person who was happy with C or D. But “Captain Obvious” (as someone called me) wonders why that is.

We can agree that the bird flying toward empty sky is “entering the picture” while in the first two photos the bird is “leaving.” And all the composition books will tell you that this “entering” is inviting you to follow the bird and also enter into the picture.

However, the rules of composition also say that the bird should be entering from the left and move to the right. Why? Well, one common argument says that it is because we read from left to right. Really? Why then was there not a more definitive preference for the left-to-right image?

Does that mean that Photo C would be more pleasing to people whose native language is Hebrew, Persian, or Arabic? Has this been tested? Maybe not so obvious after all.

And how about if the image was cropped — say a square image. What then? Would the bird be entering or leaving the picture? Would we prefer the bird heading left-to-right or right-to-left. Would we care?

In this little exercise all of you wanted the bird moving into the photo rather than out of it. But, for this small sample, direction was of little or no consequence. That's not what the conventional wisdom says.

Yes this is the most basic of little queries. It is like asking about the rule-of-thirds. But it is part of the whole composition thing with lots of “rules” that aren’t.

Take from this what you will. But I have had fun testing a number of composition "rules" over time. It seems they seldom are as absolute as their pronouncers believe they should be. This pleases me, because if we all had our subject entering from the left and perfectly placed at 1/3 the way into the image (rule of thirds) along one or two other composition “rules” then all our photos would look dreadfully similar.

There are some other questions that can arise from this exercise, but I'll leave them for another time.

Thanks for playing.

Thank you for not helping.

Here's a little survey/test I did on another photography site.

Below are four pictures of an egret taking off into flight.

The egret is the same bird in all 4 photos. There has been no corrections or adjustments made to either the bird or the sky in the photos. However, each picture is distinctly different, and I am interested in which one — and only one — you prefer and why.

After some folks have responded (I hope you play the game) I will explain this little exercise.

PHOTO A


PHOTO B


PHOTO C


PHOTO D

My specialty is monochrome, but once in while I will stray to the more colorful side of the rainbow. This is one of those times.

I reached back to the pop art of Andy Warhol — and his Marilyn Monroe portrait in particular — for this fun portrait of my wife. The trick here was to try to recreate the look of a silk screen print, rather than just a posterized image. It took longer than I thought it would, but it was fun to do.

Oh my! I just saw the heading "Silent Scenes."

Embarrassed as I am, this only strengthens my like of the empty swings. You just look at it and wonder, "Where are the children? Where is the laughter, the shouts of glee?"

Playgrounds are noisy, happy places. When they are empty, their silence can be deafening. Your wonderful image has captured this beautifully.

I am guessing your theme is empty spaces or empty things.

Number two is excellent (to me). It has a lot of strength with leading lines, pattern, and good contrast. What's not to like? If it's a competition, you might want to add some subtle emphasis to the contrast (or not).

The other two are nice, but they do not rise to the level of the swings.

One old man's opinion.

I love the name, "Snake River" and have always assumed it must be a great river. I have never seen it. Is it great? I hope so.

No wonder I don't know him. I essentially stopped listening to pop music before the Beatles were big, and by 1966 I was already reaching back to the Big Band era. I have been listening to the 1940's ever since.

Who is (or was) Frank Zappa?

Very nice!

Here's a photo of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

I find that most folks take the same arch picture, something that could be called a travel photo. I like to look for different angles or perspectives when I can. On this occasion I had great fun taking a whole series of shots from different angles.

There is no cropping, but there was some fun with the sky and pulling out the detail in the arch's surface.

I totally enjoy black & white photography, and have a monochrome website at www.photomono.us. I invite you to visit.

You can check in over at www.pentaxforums.com. It is a friendly forum with many expert KP users.

Thank you for the lovely images.

If I am not mistaken, John Heinz NWR was previously known as Tinicum Marsh back in the 40s and 50s when I was growing up in Delaware County. If so, my brother used to trap muskrat there in the late 40s. And my wife started her teaching career not far from there in Essington. Myself, I was interested neither in nature nor cameras at that time of my life. I knew Tinicum Marsh, but had no interest in it back then.

Having lived in the Houston suburbs for the past 43 years, this is little "blast from the past." Thank you for it.