Monkey in Flight Thoughts?

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jadewolf

jadewolf

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Just got back from Costa Rica and I'm really on the fence about this one photo.

My initial thought was that the motion blur was just too much and was just going to keep it back as a personal memory. The shutter speed was too low to freeze the action. But the more I look at it, I dunno... I kinda like the effect of it. The leap was enough that the whole branch was in motion, snapping back up. It was a huge leap, too, but the baby slept through the whole thing. It tells a story, but it's not textbook sharp. So I just dunno.

So I'm putting it out there to the peanut gallery for opinions. Yay or nay? Thoughts?
 
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Definitely a good story/memory. The motion blur doesn't bother me as much as the far right position in the frame and the horizontal OoF object that the monkeys seem to be resting on. Depending on your level of comfort with such edits you could always get rid of the OoF object and then add some extra trees to the right using content aware fill or from additional photos you might have. Either way, it's a great behavior shot, but from an "art" perspective it does have a few things that annoy me. (could be just me though)
 
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Yeah, that's fair. I'm not even sure what that horizontal one is, maybe a branch. So much frustration with this shot, lol. Hence why I'm so on the fence about it. Ah well, so it goes!
 
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dupcak said:
If it were mine, I'd definitely keep it in my archives just because the behavior and the story behind it is so cool. My wife will tell you that I keep waaaaayyyy too many of those types of shots :)
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Ha, yup. Guilty as charged. I keep a lot of stuff that isn't great, but represents something interesting or special. All those 'so-so' to 'bleh' photos of really fascinating animal behaviors! I justify it by thinking "you never know when you might need to reference a behavior and need an image, regardless the quality, to show it!"
 
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Delete key for me. Subject is not sharp enough to warrant keeping. I feel you though, the moment is cool and I've had many of those where if only...but I find when I hit the delete key, I never remember the bad shots but still remember cool moments. Good luck on your next opportunities to capture cool moments in sharp focus :)
 
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It's really not a bad picture, just a little blurred abut blur denotes movement/action. Whether it's too much blur or not is subjective I suppose. The thing I like about photography the most is the experiences I have with animals. I don't always capture those experiences as well as I and others would've liked but I do have the shot to enjoy that experience over and over. No critic can take that away. I'd say it's just one of those shots for you to enjoy, if no one else does. I have a few of those myself.
 
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For me, delete. It appears to me that this is one of those times that if you were shooting at 20 fps, you needed 21 fps. My problems with the shot are overall blurriness (for me, not enough blurriness to project motion, but enough blurriness to detract from subject), composition, but most importantly, "Where is the face of the mother?". Raptor's re edit is better, but still not enough to go in my portfolio. Bet it was fun to watch in person though.
 
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