Aspen Leaves, Virgin River, Zion Utah

[David Saffir]

light on the water is reflected from cliffs above - taken near sunset. comments welcome!

[popnfresh]

I really like the reflections on the water and I like the colors of the leaves, but there's no discernible composition happening here.

[David Saffir]

I agree - the leaves were moving around, so I gave up on that idea.

D

[shutterpup]

I agree - the leaves were moving around, so I gave up on that idea.

D

So the intent became?

[David Saffir]

shapes, form, color - I think of it as a small vignette from a little pool
in the very large Virgin River. I also feel that the floating leaves give a very serene, peaceful feeling.


D

[shutterpup]

shapes, form, color - I think of it as a small vignette from a little pool
in the very large Virgin River. I also feel that the floating leaves give a very serene, peaceful feeling.


D

To me, it is anything but serene and peaceful. Serene and peaceful would have more muted colors. Serene and peaceful would not have leaves whose crisp edges jump out of the scene at you; they would be softer on their edges. Serene and peaceful might have used the motion that you referred to originally to blur romantically.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I think this is an excellent shot!

Regardless of the author's stated intention and regardless of whether some viewers see the same, the shot works above all as a visual enigma, having at least two planes of reality (i.e., leaves and refections), with a surface tension between them, as one of the many visual contrasts existing in the picture: warm tones vs. cold, crisp vs. unsharp, above, vs. below (the surface), "real" world vs. reflected one… It is hyper-real and abstract and allegoric at the same time.

Oh, and did I mention I like it? I can also imagine it printed on one of those super glossy surfaces, i.e., metallic or even on metal directly, or face-mounted plexi.

[John R Smith]

David

I am not a colour photographer, but I think this is stunning and very well done. Slobodan has explained precisely the why of how it works. And of course there is "composition", for heaven's sake, or as Geoffry would insist, excellent framing. If you could reach your hand into the pool and move the leaves around you wouldn't do any better than this. Very well seen indeed.

By the way, for those who missed the point, it is not the leaves which make the composition, but the spaces between them.

John

[jeremypayne]

I like it, too ... very much ...

What is odd, however, is the behavior of the file itself.  The thumbnail appears far more orange than the enlarged image I see after clicking, which seems more yellow.

Are you encoding in a color space other than sRGB?

[shutterpup]

David,
I agree wholeheartedly with John and Slo that it's a great abstract; it's just not serene and peaceful for me as you suggested.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It works for me (and I don't worry too much about David's stated intent).

Eric

[David Saffir]

no, just straight sRGB. I see that too, and I haven't any idea why that happens. The enlargement has more
correct color appearance to my eye.

David