New Joiners - Animals #892

The vertical composition is a strong choice here as it helps to emphasise the long trunk of this elephant and the branches of the tree which makes up the background. The camera phone has produced plenty of detail throughout the focal range, keeping everything in the shot sharp. The darker tones of the elephant and its size in the frame help to maintain its dominance.

This is such a cheeky and fun image, the low perspective of the camera and the direct gaze of the righthand goat add a compelling and comical element that grabs our attention immediately. I like the placement of the line of the wall top in the bottom third - this provides a strong anchor and helps contain the goats in the frame. The central position of the animals is a good choice, and the distant sky in the background creates a clean canvas that avoids distraction.

The secret to a good close up portrait is to ensure that the focus point lands squarely on the subject's eyes, as we see here. Direct eye contact with the lens ensures that the viewer gets the full gaze of the animal and feels an immediate connection with the image. The close proximity of the lens to the cat, and the wide aperture, have ensured a shallow depth of field, creating a beautiful softness as the focus falls away from the eyes and nose. I would have experimented with a slightly tighter crop to remove some of the space at the top of the frame.

The thing I like most about this image is the use of that colourful out of focus foliage in the foreground to help add depth and frame this flamingo portrait. The bright pink of the bird also stands out well against the darker background, which is also rendered out of focus, the separation achieved through a combination of long focal length, proximity to the subject, aperture, and distance between foreground, subject and background elements.

The simplicity of the black and white approach works well here, the light tones of the horse's colouration the perfect contrast to the darker stable behind. This keeps all our attention on the horse and its facial features. The point of focus is on the animal's eyes and the angle of the head forms a pleasing diagonal across the frame. The close proximity of the camera to the horse has produced a shallow depth of field to reduce the detail in the background areas and help keep our attention on the subject. I would have been tempted to crop in slightly tighter to reduce the impact of the large, dark upper top-left corner.

This image's strength is that bold diagonal line the food trough forms as it traverses the frame from bottom left to top right. The wide angle of lens and small sensor of the camera phone has ensured a generous depth of field and kept the most important elements sharp and retaining plenty of detail. The direct eye contact from a number of the nearer animals also helps to draw the viewer's attention.

This is such a clever use of the horizontal slats of this blind to frame the cat's eyes that are the central part, and main hook, of this image. The direct eye contact forms an instant connection with the viewer. The composition is so nicely balanced and the black and white conversion removes the distraction of colour helping the viewer to focus on the graphical elements of the shot.

I rather enjoy the way the colourful folds of the flower's petals engulf this bumble bee as it dives deep within. The contrast in the dark body of the bee and the light pink of the flower is nicely contrasting, focusing our attention on the insect which has been placed in the centre of the frame. The focal point has ensured that the insects wings and thorax are sharp, the shallowish depth of field allowing the other elements to fall away softly to avoid too much distraction in the busy background. I'm never a big fan of a square crop, but it works with this photo.

What makes this photo work is the timing of the shot at the point of vocalisation - the open bill adds an energy and drama to the shot. The shallow depth of field and clean surrounding elements ensures that all our attention is on the subject. I also like the circular water ripples framing the subject and the symmetry of the reflection. The square crop doesn't make the best of the scene - a horizontal crop would work better, with the subject placed slightly to the right of centre. The vignette is a little obvious and overdone.

This shot is all about the timing, the gull perfectly central over the bright sun and rendered as a silhouette through underexposure - the correct approach to this image. I also like the other compositional elements, the line of the pier lying on the bottom and central horizontal third division, the beach and tide line forming the vertical division on the central and right thirds. The phone camera has captured an impressive amount of detail in a scene with such a high dynamic range.

This is quite a busy scene, but the photographer has managed to focus on the mouse's eye - critical to make the photograph work. The relatively long focal length of the lens has helped to reduce the depth of field and render the background and foreground areas slightly softer and out of focus, keeping more attention on the subject, but retaining a strong sense of environment. I would try a slightly tighter crop to remove the darker patches of background at the top of the frame.

A classic portrait of this large and iconic cat which sees the focus locking on to the mouth and eye area, rendering these parts as the sharpest in the frame, and helping to draw our attention to what is intended as the natural focus. The rest of the frame retains enough detail so the viewer can still enjoy the animal's beautiful markings without the background elements becoming too distracting. Cropping a little off the left of the image and placing the eyes to the left of centre would produce a better balanced composition and a more impactful photograph.