Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Riaan van Wyk on February 17, 2013, 01:16:44 pm
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Thoughts please?
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For me, the blacks are too clogged up. I like the angle, the subject and the lighting on the rocks.
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Thoughts please?
Rian...I am not able to recall if I have mentioned the book Nature's Chaos to you, (James Gleick and Eliot Porter) . Although it in large refers to the amazing world as it relates to fractals, this image I can only greet with joy, as it seems an almost involuntary step beyond for you, a story of a larger universe which captured you! I do not even need to know "rocks" or "sky" or the way they are breathing each other's lungs, I am simply overjoyed for you that you have this image, and this understanding of this place at this time, afloat in this space . This is the stuff of unknown knowledge fueling fabulous imagination and fabulous vision...just for the pleasure of seeing.
I love this!
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Interesting scene, but the image doesn't really work for me. I do like the bottom half though.
Mike.
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Thanks for looking Chris and Mike- appreciated.
Patricia, no, I haven't heard of the book, seems like one I need for my collection. Something has to be said for shooting subjects that resonate with your feelings. Sitting in or near a river, especially one like this that is interwoven in the history of my surroundings makes me feel at peace. The silence and solitude one finds here in abundance.
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For me, the blacks are too clogged up. I like the angle, the subject and the lighting on the rocks.
I love the colors in the rocks and how they are picked up a bit in the distant clouds. I don't know what he means by "too clogged up" but I have to agree with Chrisc to some extent; there's something about the transition from the rocks to the near black foliage in the mid then to the background. Too abrupt for my eye perhaps. FWIW, I do think it's an image worth working on.
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I love the colors in the rocks and how they are picked up a bit in the distant clouds. I don't know what he means by "too clogged up" but I have to agree with Chrisc to some extent; there's something about the transition from the rocks to the near black foliage in the mid then to the background. Too abrupt for my eye perhaps. FWIW, I do think it's an image worth working on.
Only mean the blacks lack some necessary detail for the viewer to clearly identify either by transition, or as an object what's there. There are very few things in nature that are purely black and even those: oil, obsidian, squid ink, coal tar have to have some reflective values or variations of tonal blacks to be appreciatively seen in a photograph, and I think for that matter, seen by the photographer to convey said "blacks." Long, wordy sentence but perhaps it conveys "clogged."
This is a rare image by Riaan which has caused me this kind of visual angst. Like you, I see far more potential than lack, thereof (at least to satisfy me).
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Thoughts please?
There's a lot of natural subjects that feel better than the resulting photograph. You get a feeling of awe, you try to get it in the camera, and it comes out uninspiring. But not here, You have managed to turn nature into something worth looking at in this photograph, and that's rare enough to warrant praise for the photo. This view gets me down into this rock fall and gets me close enough to appreciate the beauty and yet contains enough in the frame to give me context. Rocks and pebbles when done this way can also deliver abstract charm as this one does. My feeling is of someone really looking and seeing - -but not with any old eye - but with a photographer's eye. Everyone can see, the tricky part is to see photographs. This one of a few rocks is worth a thousand boring Grand Canyon sunsets.
However good the treatment of the foreground is, the background is underwhelming. It's existing here as an afterthought. The mountains are rendered as a wooly dark mass and the sky is a sickening color. Those are trivial to adjust and you should do it so as to make a perfect photograph. The hills can be subtly lightened to provide a little detail, and the sky..well, you know how to adjust that. And then you might want to consider lowering the top edge until it comes in contact with the hills on the right. That odd vertical expanse of sky on one side is awkward.
One of the earlier comments was very poetic, and I fully understand why. It's an image that can inspire the emotions and it allows for some interesting thoughts about the nature of it too. What more can you ask in a photo? I enjoyed it.
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The fleshy appearance of the rocks frankly makes me feel a little sick when I look at this. It's worse in the thumbnail, which is unfortunate because I see that first.
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For illustration purposes to David Eckels, I "opened up" the areas in Riaan's image in a manner which I think clarifies the transition from fore to sky. I had two area that concerned my eye: the very bottom left corner and the ridge that ran from upper middle right toward the horizon center. Neither being as dark as Riaan projected seemed to assist in my understanding of the image.
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8485171777_db508c6969_o.jpg)
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The fleshy appearance of the rocks frankly makes me feel a little sick when I look at this. It's worse in the thumbnail, which is unfortunate because I see that first.
Sickness is a small price to pay for art. Or at least other peoples sickness is [it just made me a little queasy].
Bruce
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Chrisc,
Yes, that was what was bothering (poor choice of words) me. Thanks.
Riaan, hope this is helpful of what I was trying to convey.