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From John down under:
Hi Tom,
Cloning is great for getting rid of yucky stuff. It helps you copy clean stuff over the top of yucky stuff and it can still look pretty natural.
Cheers, John
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Whoops, forgot to add my name there -- which I have corrected. :-) This indeed was a crop of a much bigger image, though there was indeed a bit more "front leg" in the original picture. I still didn't get the "foot," though, and there was a little pile of "yucky stuff" down in the lowest right corner. So, I mainly cut the "yucky stuff" out for this crop.
I second John's advice about including the extended front paw, but the pose is interesting and you've filled the frame well. The image seems a little noisy to me - is it perhaps a crop from a larger shot? It looks as though the camera has focused on the critter's back rather than on his head and eyes, either that or a bit of critter's head movement has been captured by the camera. It's a nice shot, but I don't get a strong sense of "joy" personally I'm afraid.
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From John down under:
Hi Tom (or whoever you are),
The title says it all. Nice capture! This is my favourite of your three posts here, especially with this theme. I think the diagonal arrangement of this squirrel works well here to place the face in a very suitable spot, although I might have liked to see the rest of the front arm/hand so that I wouldn't be wondering so much about what your little friend is doing off-frame. I don't mind the tail disappearing off frame as I'm pretty sure it will not be doing anything interesting, just pretty much existing. With more arm/hand, I might prefer to see a bit more tail to balance the whole image.
Cheers, John
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