-- Don Carter (carter-graphics@pobox.com), August 24, 1998

Answers

While technically competent, this is a pretty boring snapshot.

-- Lester LaForce (102140.1200@compuserve.com), August 24, 1998.

Crop off on the right along the vertical line that intersects the bottom right side of the column. This eliminates the dead space on the right. The left side of the column is the interesting part. Crop off the bottom up to the tip of the triangular light batch which appears along the bottom just left of center. This white patch catches the eye and is distracting. This new composition is better.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), August 24, 1998.

Paul,
I appreciate your constructive criticism. This link is the image cropped as you suggested.

Cropped Version

Don

-- Don Carter (carter-graphics@pobox.com), August 24, 1998.

Don,

Your cropped version is exactly what I'd suggested. I realize in looking at it again that just cropping off the bottom is enough. Then the river gorge runs more or less in a diagonal from bottom left to top right.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), August 24, 1998.

I think the original composition is fine, I would like to see this picture taken several hours later with warmer light.

-- Carl Coryell-Martin (ccoryell@hmc.edu), August 24, 1998.

Right, as John Shaw frequently says, the problem with this image is the light. Warmer light near sunset/sunrise will help a lot. Moreover, the direction of the light will be very important. As the way it is, a great deal of the left side of this image is in the shades. That may or may not be the effect you want.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), August 24, 1998.

I also think the light could have been better. The column blend to well with the valley wall in the back ground. Other than that, it's a spectacular image.

-- Adam Harrison (eros@ncd.com), August 24, 1998.

The above comments touch on most of the constructive criticism I might offer. The composition is fine, I don't think it needs any cropping -- the horizon is about 1/3 from the top, the pinnacle is 2/3 from the left. Warmer light and/or a warmer film would improve it, Velvia probably was not used, but would have helped. The sky would have benefited from a warming Polorizer -- with the sun coming from a 90 degree angle you get the maximum effect from Polorizers. I think 1/2 stop less exposure would have given richer colors without hiding any significant detail -- as it is, there is no good black to establish a full tonal range. Waiting until later would have provided warmer light, but the sun's angle would also have been lower making the shadows deeper, longer and hiding more of the middle ground. Having said that, a neighboring cube here in my office has a calendar with a shot of a Canyon like this one, but it was shot with golden afternoon light --the highlights have gone to orange and the distant cliffs to purple -- very effective. It was chosen for the calendar after all... My beef with shots like this is it just seems like it was taken by a tourist who drove by and stopped at a scenic overlook -- didn't have time to hang out or come back when the light would be better, use the best film or filters -- but still wants other photographer's to take him seriously. The photographer has a good eye, he just needs to make a commitment to his art.

-- Lester LaForce (102140.1200@compuserve.com), August 25, 1998.

Thanks to all for taking some time to give me your thoughts on this image. It is a fairly good seller for me, but I have wanted to go back and spend a few days out on the point to try some different things. I have about 20 other frames from the same spot shot over a 4 hour period that day but this is the only one that I have scanned so far. Perhaps later I will post some of the shots taken as the light changed, up until the sun set. With tongue in cheek I think I prefer Lester's first comments to his last.

-- Don Carter (carter-graphics@pobox.com), August 29, 1998.

More polarization, more saturation digitally + (perhaps) slightly more sharpness, particularly head (top) of foreground stone element would have made this INMO a B+ image, I humbly submit.

-- Tom Williams (image.araya@mailcity.com), September 06, 1998.