• Members 1662 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 11:29 a.m.

    I like both honestly! Great work.

  • Members 676 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 3:37 p.m.

    I like the picture but from purely a subjective viewpoint I would either open up that dark foreground or crop much of it out ...

    WhyNot

  • Members 676 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 3:41 p.m.

    Reluctance

    Reluctance.jpg

    WhyNot

    Reluctance.jpg

    JPG, 1.1 MB, uploaded by WhyNot on Nov. 16, 2023.

  • Members 118 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 3:49 p.m.

    [/quote]

    I agree with rich42, the wide version looks much better. I also agree with WhyNot, if you want a square version I think you should cut out half of the foreground (it's boring).

  • Members 676 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 3:54 p.m.

    Beautiful scene well photographed .. I had to look this one up .. looks like a few roads and lots of 4WD roads into the park ...didn't see any walking trail's marked out on their map. I'm no longer into travel for any distance so I'll rely on your next visit to see more of this park! .... Very nice ...

    WhyNot

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:14 p.m.

    Now that's a rather wonderful image with those overlapping layers of mountains and all the varying tonalities involved. Though it would be nice in monochrome because of the tonalities, I like the purples and browns of the color version. This is definitely one where I'm not tempted to take out the power stanchions. They are essential to the story, delicately strung with wires and silhouetted across the plain at the foot of the mountain range, reminding us of the fragile connections and small boundaries between wild and tamed places.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:16 p.m.

    Excellent example of your special magic, the sharp focus on the foreground element that winds its way into blur by the third twirl. But the real beauty of this one is the scrumptious orange bokeh balls lavishly distributed underneath the coil.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:18 p.m.

    Thanks for taking us with you on a wonderful fall walk in an old forest. You've given us the scenery in all its angles: distant, downwards, upwards, broken into elements, and close up. The last two, of the pathway and the leaves, are my favorites. Great sense of place.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:24 p.m.

    Excellent capture of a great find, well photographed. The design element of a strong diagonal works here, even though the middle third of it is implied. but I think it would work better cropped from the bottom to eliminate the buildings, not because of distraction so much as because of interference with the diagonal. When I look at it, the buildings bother me visually because their weight keeps my eye glued to the bottom edge and prevents easy movement to "finish" the diagonal in the upper right. When I eliminate them my eye moves more easily and the composition becomes more balanced and lighter.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:30 p.m.

    Both are quite wonderful. I actually thought the first one was an old vintage postcard. What an elegant ship! And beautiful captured/presented in a manner that does justice to beauty and age and grace. The three quarters angle is just perfect to display all the delicate features and lines. The closer up view of the carved figures gives us a snapshot of how rich that detail really is. Well done.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:40 p.m.

    Small stories are often all I can find in my home turf, so I have an appreciation for them. This one is sharply caught, the light on the reeds suggests the time as very early or very late in the day. The water bubbles are caught in minute detail and in action. I am bothered a bit by the blocked shadows, which get me stuck especially in the upper left quadrant. The way we respond to black or near-black shadow areas is variable from person to person and leads into questions of how black, how much and where. There is no right or wrong. It would be interesting to have more discussion on this, as it is part of my response to Chris's image as well. Well caught, nonetheless, exactly as you meant it to be.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 5:45 p.m.

    I quite like this abstracted image of what seems to be trees and/or other plant life against a blue sky with sunset behind. The abstraction may be from water somehow, or it could be from camera work or even post processing. Whatever you used to get to this place was well chosen. The colors, while subtly manipulated, are only slightly out of the range of the real and this lets the artwork become the subject rather than the color becoming the subject. The gentle movement of the lines is soothing rather than jarring. I like this one a lot.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 6:10 p.m.

    Love it. I get obsessed with fishing boats and all their equipment, I must have worked on one in some prior life. The colors, the textures, the details, are all well captured and rendered here. We can even explore the darkened interior through that open door. Nice title, a correct one: everything has its place, and those who use those tools know exactly where they are. The two red triangles on the right anchor the composition and help keep us from getting lost in that chaos.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 6:24 p.m.

    Nice clear fountain bow. You actually have two bows in there, the upper one being much paler (it could be enhanced if you wanted, in PP, creating an impression of a decorated Christmas tree.) I really like the way you've captured the water in this shot. I think the platform on the right and the pole extended from it are not necessary to the image, and are something of a distraction. If I were you I'd crop them out and leave the tree dead center (I don't have as many objections to centering as some folks do). Or if you like it where it is, I'd consider removing it in PS or similar.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 6:25 p.m.

    I think you're onto something good here and hope you'll keep developing this concept, whatever it may be. Love the first one. Love the colors and the movement.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 6:31 p.m.

    Nice well-taken series more in the realm of intimate landscapes than large scenes. I tend to use vertical framing for such shots, and often end up liking them better than the traditional wide angle views. I like the way you've subtly incorporated the water into the second and third without letting it dominate the image, showing us more about the trees and grasses and well worn soil, yet we always know the water's importance. I imagine there are many tales this waterhole could tell. You hint at them but let us imagine. Well done.

  • Members 1585 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 6:36 p.m.

    Well titled and fun. Pup seems less invigorated by the shoreline walk than his mistress. The subject becomes the leash that ties them together, bisecting the frame diagonally, and we feel the tension as she urges him along and he hangs back. The textures applied through your processing turn this more towards a Norman Rockwell art piece than a street photo, and makes me like it even more.

  • Members 676 posts
    Nov. 16, 2023, 7:44 p.m.

    A reactive photograph …. what intrigued me the most was the compositional device of that leash that keeps my main character from walking out of the picture and seems to tie the picture together . . The “Rockwell look” has a couple origins – I saw many of Rockewell's Saturday Evening Post covers during WWII when my mother got the magazine regularly, a showing of Rockwell's work at the local Museum about 5 years ago, and some pp tools that got me going in that direction. I liked the effect and thought it gave my street people a bit of anonymity so I continue using it .. Your comment had me looking back to my series on that art show when I wasn't using that technique and has me thinking I should go back and rework it a bit …..

    R1.jpg

    Thank you for the comment ..

    WhyNot

    R1.jpg

    JPG, 1000.3 KB, uploaded by WhyNot on Nov. 16, 2023.