Merced in Spring (with quote this time)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Nature Photography Image Critique : One Thread


Taken this June in Yosemite, Mamiya 645 with a 45mm lens on Fuji Velvia.

-- Ken Denton (sysop@rowan.edu), December 30, 1998

Answers

There's something about this composition that doesn't work for me. It has a bunch of nice elements, silky water, rocks, trees, etc., but it doesn't seem to click as a whole. Maybe there's too many elements and the image would improve with cropping, but my 35mm framing aid doesn't reveal the extroadinary image inside this one.

I suspect that I've just seen to many silky-water-over-rocks pictures, a hazard of hanging around galleries and landscape photographers to much.

Frank

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), December 30, 1998.


What is THE SUBJECT?

If you were interested by THE WATER you had to go up and down along the river to find the right light, the right rocks, the right water speed and then photograph only the water/rock/lights.

If you were interested by the mountain sceneri, with the river flowing trough the wood, you had to reach an other point of view and to include more trees and a bit of the sky.

I don't like. Sorry Ken.

Carlo

-- Carlo Folli (c.folli@rsadvnet.it), December 30, 1998.


Those folks are being overly harsh.

Technical aspects: Exposure and focus are spot on. Good scan.

Important aspects: This image does work for me, as it very sucessfully captures the quality of light and 'feel' of the merced on a grey day. I *like* the contrast between the stillness of the wood and the motion of the water.

With the wide aspect ratio it's apparent that you've cropped the top and/or bottom. Which was it, and why? My feeling is that the image could use something in the foreground, perhaps, but more importantly I'd also like to see more of the forest.

All in all, a very good effort. Don't listen too hard to the guy who wanted to know what the subject is; the direction that this landscape is going is good, but not simple.

-- Alexey Merz (alexey@webcom.com), December 30, 1998.


I think that if you can go back (if you don't live too far away)and start looking closer and pull out the longer lenses you should start getting more "abstract", check out the three rocks in the lower right, crop closer in to them and you might see some interesting patterns.

Mark

-- mark lindsey (lindseygraves@msn.com), December 31, 1998.


Actually I like this image. However, I think including more woods in the background would help. Moreover, at least the scan seems to be a bit under-exposed. Brighten up the rocks in the river may help. The woods in the background definitely looks dark; perhaps a graduaded neutral density filter would help.

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), December 31, 1998.


I like the misty water and rocks, but I have to say that the forest background is very dull. Better light might help, but I'm not sure.

-- Rich Ruh (pathfinder@poboxes.com), January 04, 1999.

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