Patience and Working the Scene

The three children in the scene are cousins.  While watching the children play in the water, I talked to their parents about taking a photo of them playing.

What drew me to this scene, of course, was the children playing; but I quickly noticed that the curvature of the water spray was matched by the curvature of the wall in the background.  I thought this implied circle would make a great composition.

Now, what did I do wrong.  First, I was not patience.  The real photo was the little girl in the foreground and how she was studying the water.  I should have waited until the two cousins moved out the scene—which was right after this photo was taken.  Second, this photo should have been taken at f/8 (very sharp portion of this lens) which would have resulted in a shutter speed of 1/750^th of a second.  The f/8 aperture would have better isolated her by making the foreground and background slightly out-focus and the 1/750^th of second would have frozen the water better—basically, a win, win situation.

Enjoy. 

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, ISO 200, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, f/19 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 3:  Set black and white points, added contrast with a mild curve and added a little vignetting.