Amateur would recompose an Iconic Photo, how large is my ego?

One of my favorite photos, and the one that hangs over my fireplace is called "White Wolf" and was taken by Jim Brandenburg. The link is below, please take a look at it to answer my questions.

It is an iconic photo, especially for those of us who live in Minnesota and visit Jim's gallery in Ely. OK, here's the question: is this photo a rule breaker? Why does it work? Would your recompose if you had a chance?
http://www.jimbrandenburg.com/flash/inde...

The photograph I am thinking of is called White Wolf, on the right side, about 2/3 of the way down.

Oh shoot, the link is involved.

You have to click on the link, and then click on SHOP, and then click on POSTERS. White Wolf is half-way down on the right side. Sorry for the wild goose, er........... wolf chase.

Suppose you did not see the original. Would you like a tighter crop? http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...
(This is such a low resolution, low quality image, I am not worried about someone stealing it.)

I like the blue open sky in the original, but I think I prefer the tighter crop. The wolf and his reflection are MUCH more obviously the main subjects of the image now. There are converging diagonals that eliminate the upwards sweep of the clouds in the original and I kind of like that better.

Toss out the "rules" and decide what looks good. I think that rules are for people who otherwise would not have a clue.

"irreverence justified" I like that. Report It

I do not see how recomposing it could make it better. The shot itself is almost too centered. But that said if you cropped either top or bottom you would run into severe composition problems.
The entire bottom is necessary because that is what gives the bottom weight and grounds the picture. The entire top is necessary because the dynamic of the clouds that move into frame at an angle gives th picture the depth that it needs to show the expanse of space. Lets say you had time to change lenses. That would not work either as a longer lens would lose the dynamic of th scene and a shorter lens would make the subject too small to have much impact.
So I go with the photographer on this one. It is perfect as is.

I wouldn't touch it.

Yes, it breaks the Fill The Frame With Your Subject Rule and the Rule of Thirds.

But the subject matter is so riveting that applying those rules would ruin the picture.

V

I'm not sure you could re-compose this photo. Wildlife photography is often a case of "see, shoot". It isn't like a scenic where your subject is static.

i'm sure that was an issue with the photographer originally, and i imagine he tried different crops with it before settling on this image. i like dr. sam's crop and if i had not seen the original would prefer that. having seen the original, i do like the fuller sky in the shot...more of the blue...
cropping images can be such a quandary...i like the way the golden mean is more to the right in sam's crop though...

I prefer the original to Sam's crop. The original shows the isolation of the ice flow to the right - that the wolf was in the middle of nowhere to begin with. This is what makes the shot great. The wolf is already the main subject because, well, there's nothing else there. And to me, the wolf's reflection in this picture is incidental. (Here's a well known shot by Bresson where the reflection *is* part of the subject: http://voiceofpower.net/images/BehindThe... ) The clouds in Sam's version are less distracting, but that in itself does not merit the crop.

Edwin might be right - this might be a lucky grab. But very few photographers are as strict as Bresson in that a photograph must never be post processed (which includes cropping), so I tend to agree with Michael and V2K1 about this image.

I do whole heartedly agree with Sam about the use of rules in general... I just don't agree with him about this particular photograph.

You can't argue with taste... but it sure is interesting to try.

I have to agree with Edwin, with nature shots composition often takes a back seat with a moving subject.
In this case the distance from shore is lost in Sams crop...it has to be the way it is. I'm left wondering what can it, the wolf, do next? Where can it go? To me that's what makes the photo and without the great expanse that sense would be lost. It almost has to be centered to work.