It Needs to be Smaller

Karen and I were babysitting our three grandkids in Des Moines the past couple of days.  We took over the eldest boy’s bedroom (who took over the youngest boy’s bedroom, who slept in a nest of blankets in mom and dad’s walk-in closet).  In the bathroom closest to our bedroom there are three framed landscape pictures I took not too long ago while backpacking in Oregon.  I stress “framed” because as I looked at one of them I noticed I should have cropped the picture differently – it needed to be smaller.

The picture on my computer looked great – a sunrise scene of a majestic mountain and its reflection in a blue lake.  I had an 8X10 printed of it and they found a frame with matte for the picture.  Unfortunately, when affixing the picture to the matte approximately 1/4″ of the picture is now under the matte.  The top of the mountain is cut off.  My bad!

Here’s a picture of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher I took recently in Holland, MI.  The Gnatcatcher got wet from the early morning dew as it foraged for insects to eat.  This is how I originally cropped it:

Note how the leaves above the head of the Gnatcatcher and its tail are near the edge.  If this picture were to be matted and framed the top of the leaves and the bottom of the tail would be covered by the matte.

Here’s how I should crop it, leaving plenty of room above and below the bird:

Give your GreatBirdPics that are going to be framed a little room around the edges – remember, it needs to be smaller.

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