Canon 30D, handheld Tokina 19-35 at 19mm 1/250 second at f7.1, ISO 320

Looking at the small picture

For better or worse, most times I'm pretty happy with how I frame an image in-camera, meaning that during editing I rarely crop images more than a trivial amount to get the frame that I like best. On occasion, I shoot a bit wide to allow for more options, such as trimming down to typical print ratios – this is a really good idea (well, necessary) when shooting paid deals like weddings and portraits, not that I do a lot of them.

But every once in a while, I look at one of my shots and realize that it works a lot better as a tight crop, highlighting some aspect and making it dominate the frame. This is one such occasion. Looking around for some kind of foreground interest when given the opportunity of a vivid rainbow, I settled on some pine branches that still had raindrops adhering to them. Later on while sorting, I realized I wanted more attention on the drops, and the bow sitting right behind them provided a great opportunity.

Even further on I wondered if, had I attempted a high magnification macro shot of the drops, I could have captured a lensed image of the bow within the drops themselves. So far, the opportunity to try that little experiment hasn't presented itself.