Taken on the trail to Lena Lake, in the Olympics, WA. Pentax ZX-5n, Sigma 24/2.8, Fujichrome slide (100?). Scanned with HP PhotoSmart.

More images and text from the hike are at http://www.bigadventures.com/hiking.

-- Steve Leroux (steve@bigadventures.com), July 27, 1998

Answers

Possibly this would have been a better image if you had kept the camera horizontal instead of tilting it upward. The foliage at the top of the frame doesn't add much, the keystoning (inward leaning) of the trees at far left is quite odd, and the forest floor is perhaps the most interesting part of this image. Good exposure.

-- Richard Shiell (rshiell@lightspeed.net), July 27, 1998.

i think this is a successful image; however, i feel that its impact would be higher if done in b&w, shot with a red filter, and printed on high contrast paper.

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), July 28, 1998.

I've a couple of technical points to make.

First, the subject is in the direct center of the image. I think that this image would be more powerful if it followed the Rule Of Thirds.

Second, the extreme edges are quite out of focus. It's not a question of depth of field because, based on the In-Focus mossy rock in the bottom center of the image, I'd say this image has DOF= roughly 18"-infinity. So, it must be the Sigma lens or the scan.

Third, I think the main subject (tree stump) is too far away. It gets lost among the chaos of the rest of the image. Simplicity! Choose a compelling subject, and eliminate everything else.

-- James Tarquin (tarquin@erols.com), July 28, 1998.

I also like this and applaud Steve for "breaking the rules".

I do think it could be stronger by placing the stump off center and getting closer. The mossy rocks are very cool and I'm glad they're in the frame. Also, rainforest slopes tend to give way very easily (as he knows all too well by now ;>) and I applaud him for staying on the trail and not contributing to erosion by resisting the urge to go closer. That said... ;> the rocks immediately surrounding the stump would make for an awesome close-up with a 24mm lens, including the stump and canopy...

Exposures in a rain forest (a specialty of mine) can be a real bear because the light so often is filtered through "mucky" skies and almost no amount of filtering really helps... ==Always bracket== and remember to keep in mind reciprocity failure induced color shifts, since you'll often be making a several seconds long exposures under the canopy.

But then if this is a default scan from the Photosmart (I have one too) then I understand the flatness. In fact I suspect that's the case as I was able to correct it merely by setting the appropriate black and midtone points and tweaking the satuation by 15% ("standard" for HP PhotoSmart scans). I highly recommend the Margulis "Professional Photoshop" book.

This appears to be a full frame scan. A standard 8x10 crop, eliminating the less interesting left-most portion, gives a very pleasing composition. (I sent you my interpretation in a seperate email...see if the density more closely matches your slide and if you like the cropping...and yes, I deleted the copy from my hard drive :>).

As to the keystoning...if this were a documentary photo, it probably wouldn't be acceptable. But as art, as an image intended to evoke an emotion, the keystoning combined with the motion blur of the windblown leaves and the general ethereal feeing of a rainforest...it works for me.

I'll be backpacking for a week there in September after most of the summer crowds leave and hopefully after some rainy days (I live in goretex ;>).

Thanks for posting this, Steve. You're geting me psyched. I enjoyed the trip report on your site, too. I think it's absolutely wonderful that you would spend a Saturday building trails.

Best Regards,

Keith

(sorry for the long post)

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), July 28, 1998.

The composition works and the leaning trees help to draw my eye towards the center of the picture. Forget about "rule of thirds", it's fine as it is. I just wish there were something else in the center instead of that ugly tree stump.

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), July 28, 1998.