6.5 Interpretation and storytelling

I took this image at a falconry. It shows a barn owl leaving the falconer's glove as it flew to the other end of the field.

The falconer's arm gives a nice leading line which would be more effective if the image were flipped horizontally. However the falconer was right-handed and wore the glove on his left hand. If the image were reversed, he would perceive it as wrong and untrue.

One of the 'rules' for wildlife is that there should always be some space for it to move into. I didn't capture that space. I could have used content aware fill to give some more space to the left, but that would also have been untrue. I also liked this composition (I cropped the falconer's shoulder and glasses and nose out of the shot, and removed grass above and below).

Finally, I could have removed the arm and the anklets and straps on the bird's leg so that it looked like I had captured a wild barn owl (which I'd love to do). But what would be the point in that? I'd know it wasn't wild, it wouldn't be an image I could use in a competition, so it would be for my own purposes - and I know it wasn't true.

I much prefer this image as it stands and think it tells a clear story of a captive animal working with a human handler. It still shows the beauty of the bird and I find it a satisfying image to look at - which is my aim when taking photographs.

While at the falconry, I saw some walkers in the distance and used my long zoom to capture them silhouetted on top of the hill.

This image has been altered by removing a dog who was walking with them but who was further down the hill and hard to see properly, and one of the walkers (there were four originally) as I found the spacing between them more pleasing this way.

This image is a much more abstract one than the owl and the people are not identifiable. I've rendered it in black and white, increased the silhouette of the walkers and messed around with the sky to make it look more interesting.

While it's not an authentic representation of what I saw, it's a good representation of what was suggested to me by what I saw and what prompted me to take the photograph. I think the image still tells a story of people out for a walk. They looks like serious walkers as they have backpacks and sticks. They are walking along the top of a ridge and are about to walk down it. I think the removal of one walker and the dog (while the individuals concerned might be horrified to think that had been done) doesn't change that story. I think perhaps that the one removed walker does change the dynamic a little as they were between the middle and left figure and by closing the gap it made it feel more of a close-knit group.

Now that I've reflected on this I'm going to find another image and edit that too with four figures in it, to see what that feels like. It's not so much the number as having a satisfying spacing and leg shapes so we'll see how it turns out.

[edited to add the following]

I returned to the images to find one with four to edit, and there wasn't one there that I wanted to work with. In the other images, the four are looking towards the lens as they noticed the falconry and were looking at what was going on. Without the profiles, it's a completely different story and not the one that I was planning to tell, so I didn't proceed.