-- Darron Spohn (sspohn@concentric.net), November 17, 1999

Answers

I see where you were going with this, but either the scan is off, or this looks underexposed by about a stop.

It may have been more effectve as a B&W.

Compositionally, I think in this case, "less is more". I mean, there are a lot of blossoms and branches and the frame seems crowded and "confused", although I appreciate the square format and the strong diagonal composition. Changing the composition to include fewer blossoms would also have resulted in fewer bare branches which compete with the surface of the rocks for attention.

Was this a true square shot (Rollei, Hasselblad) or did you crop?

Hope it helps...

Keith

-- Keith Clark (clarkphotography@spiritone.com), November 17, 1999.

This is pretty close to full frame. I shot it with a Yashica Mat 124G while standing on a boulder in the middle of the Merced River. This does look underexposed on my monitor at work (Windows NT). Part of that is the JPEG compression. The PhotoShop file on my calibrated Macintosh monitor at home is much brighter and the flowers pop out better. I can guarantee the scan isn't the problem, as I used a Heidelberg Tango drum scanner. This was shot on an overcast day. Exposure was 1/2 second at f/22 on Kodak E100S.

I can't argue with the crowded composition, but those flowers were too beautiful to pass up. It looks much better when seen larger. I was just happy the wind held still long enough to get the flowers sharp. I was also happy I didn't fall into the river getting out there and back.

-- Darron Spohn (sspohn@concentric.net), November 17, 1999.