Hi everyone. I recently started reading this forum and think it is wonderful. I took this with my Pentax ZX-5, 80-200mm lens, Ektachrome E100S, F22, 1/8 sec, polarizer on. It's cropped from a much larger area, so I'm interested in comments on composition, as well as any other suggestions.

-- Ellen Isaacs (ellen@izix.com), January 18, 1999

Answers

I like it. Dune pictures often speak to me. In this shot you have nice contrasts of texture and nice shapes. I like square pictures, too. As far as criticism goes, I'd find it a little more pleasing without the clump of grass or whatever in the upper left, and I think that it might be slightly nicer if the lower shadow area didn't extend quite so far to the left edge of the picture, as it breaks up the ridged region a bit. You've also got a couple of stray "fingers" along the right edge, about a third of the way down. They distract a little.

-- Jeremy Tavan (mithril@uss-federation.starfleet.com), January 18, 1999.

Love it !

-- Adrian Sorescu (guide@rokura.ro), January 18, 1999.

Very very nice. My own photos last Jan. didn't quite capture the abstract beauty like yours does. The photos need some(a small bit) of bushes, etc. to give it some scale. The lower shadow does intrude a bit too much toward the left.

-- Warren Kato (wkato@aol.com), January 18, 1999.

I haven't yet had the opportunity to try to photograph dunes so can't speak from experience. Nevertheless I'm impressed by the exposure, the excellent detail in the texture of the ripples in the sand (shadow and light), and the sensuous curves captured. Very nice!

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), January 18, 1999.

Very nice collection of patterns and textures. Lighting and exposure are excellent.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), January 18, 1999.

Nice work, but the dunes themselv could have been more pretty ;-)

The blobs of something at the top distracts, and so does the notches on the slope at the left. Of course it's hard to find perfect looking dunes in the perfect light, and you made the best out of the situation it seems.

-- Kristian Elof Sxrensen (elof@image.dk), January 18, 1999.

I look at this shot and I keep looking to the right, wanting to see what's there. I don't think you could have got a better shot by cropping more, but since I can't see the full frame, it's very difficult to say what I think you shouldn't have cropped.

Ellen, next time, please consider posting a hyperlink or URL to the original shot if you don't post a full frame image. It could be that your cropping is disagreeable, but without seeing what liberties you've exercised, there's very little we can say about it.

-- Sean Yamamoto (seany@altavista.net), January 19, 1999.

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful comments. Sean, I'm sorry I didn't think to post the full image as well. I've put it at http://www.izix.com/images/DV3hillsSmall.jpg

I also tried a cropping that gets rid of the bushes, which leaves a much different image: http://www.izix.com/images/DV3hillsNoBush.jpg (I kind of like the bushes for contrast, but it was useful to hear that some of you found them distracting.)

And I tried a crop that shows more of the area to the left so the shadowed area at the bottom wouldn't encroach the left edge so much. I didn't want the bushes in the center, though, so I went much further to the left. That's at: http://www.izix.com/images/DV3hillsLeft.jpg

Again, thanks for the help.

-- Ellen Isaacs (ellen@izix.com), January 19, 1999.

Ellen, Very nice! I like how you chose to frame this, I think it's well-balanced. I like the flowing, curving lines, the "shapes" formed by the two dark shadows, the subtle change in tones and the beautiful skimming light that brings out the sand patterns in the middle left and foreground.

-- Barbara Kelly (kellys@alaska.net), January 22, 1999.

Simply excellent!

-- Shun Cheung (shun@worldnet.att.net), January 23, 1999.