Black racer snake - Thoughts on crop and other critiques

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O

O'Malley

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Would've liked more time to compose the shot only had about 60 seconds from time I noticed them at my feet to take this photo and had to quickly back up a good bit just barely within minimum focus distance and get eye level before the little black racer slithered away. I've included the full uncropped image and two ideas so far but looking for feedback on how you would crop this image and any other critiques/edits you suggest. I'm leaning toward the portrait crop as I'm finding some of the grass less distracting and more visible background but then a wider view with more grass looks to give more scale to the snake. Taken with Nikon Z9 and 500 f/4E ISO 200 1/1600s f/4
 

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Cool shot!

I'd probably crop to something like your horizontal cropped version but a bit tighter and probably with the snake a bit farther right in the frame. Some environment is good but I don't think the overall environment is so interesting that I'd include as much of it as you did in that horizontally cropped version.
 
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DRwyoming said:
Cool shot!

I'd probably crop to something like your horizontal cropped version but a bit tighter and probably with the snake a bit farther right in the frame. Some environment is good but I don't think the overall environment is so interesting that I'd include as much of it as you did in that horizontally cropped version.
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Thanks. I appreciate the feedback and I like that idea playing around with that now. Here is another try.
 

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I'd use a portrait rather than landscape crop, darken the highlights and brighten the darker portions of the image as here and then do something about the bright spot in the foreground -- darken it, clone in some grass or do a graduated darkening from the bottom.

Black Racer Snake 10.jpg
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#1 is a portrait about the snake. Less of an environmental shot like #2. In #3 the snake is too centered. Depending upon what you want to say, I would go with #1 or #2. Personally I would pick #2.
 
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