Melissa Cramer Sonnen
July 2025 - Small Cairn with Ladybug
About the Image(s)
The cairn was taken on a camping trip, where we found a place in the woods that must have had 200 cairns built there. We shot nearly every one of them. Some were 2 feet tall. This one was about 7 inches high. The ladybug was with a cell phone. The boy was climbing the tower at a festival. I put this ladybug everywhere, so it felt natural on the carn pix. It took a lot of downsizing to do it. Standard camera settings on the cairn.
5 comments posted
The boy climbing works so well with his feet at exactly the right angles to fit onto the stones. The ladybug...we call it a ladybird. Heaven knows why, is great fun but maybe big enough to scare the boy into falling off!! That would be a disaster. Such interesting and competent work Melissa. Posted: 07/12/2025 10:39:36
Very nice work Melissa. My only suggestion is to darken the background to make the subject stand out more. Posted: 07/12/2025 14:54:26
Tom - you are correct - I just darkened it and it does improve the impact of my subjects. Thanks. - Melissa Posted: 07/12/2025 17:23:11
Melissa, You've nicely handled adding the boy to the cairn. Given we don't have your base pictures I couldn't tell, a sign of good work, that the cairn was 7 inches tall. I agree with Tom's suggestion and would also recommend dialing back the color intensity and brightness of the lady bug as it seems unnaturally intense relative to the other "realistic" objects. Posted: 07/12/2025 20:35:01
Hi Melissa, I do agree with the comments, very nice in blending the images and the boy fits in well. In addition to darkening the background as Tom has suggested, I would also lighten or add a tonal contrast to the boy on the cairn. Posted: 07/19/2025 11:27:38