My favorite photo of the day is a prime example of negative and positive space.  If you aren’t familiar with the geeky art terms: positive space is the area occupied by your subject matter and negative space is the rest of it. Your positive space can be spread out, take up most of the picture, or be more contained and small, like my friend, Mr. Ducky, here.  Negative space doesn’t have to be empty space, necessarily.  It can just have less importance, detail, etc. than the rest of the image.  Some people like to minimize negative space.  Those people would probably have cropped in real close around the duck and allowed him to fill in most of the frame.  I tried this and didn’t like it, so I left it as it was.  The subtle patterns in the water held enough interest for me to want them in the picture.  The lovely thing about art is that it’s all about preference.  I like it this way, and I’m right.  If you prefer it with less of the water, you’re right too.  Yea!

The downside to ruling the boat: less time to photograph.  In fact, I took 75% less pictures than our first visit to Horsetooth Reservoir.  I did a pretty thorough job the last time, however, so I didn’t feel it was too big a loss. I did see two or three opportunities I’d have liked to have taken, but such is life I guess.  The stuff I did get to do, like get in the water twice (and with Bessie too!  Pictured above in her stylish doggie life-preserver), hang out with my dad, and – did I mention steer the boat?-more than made up for a couple of missed photographs.