The Gate

[Chris Calohan]

[nemo295]

The sky with its unusual clouds is the most interesting thing for me.

[Tony Jay]

Nice Chris.

I assume this was shot in somewhere in North America but for me this could also be Africa or Australia.
I do like the sense one gets of the wide-open-spaces.

Tony Jay

[stamper]

A little more space between the top of the gate and the horizon would have been imo better? Take your step ladders with you the next time you visit this scene, though balancing your tripod - if you used one - on top could be tricky? Overall I like the processing and I can see what attracted you to the subject.

[Chris Calohan]

A little more space between the top of the gate and the horizon would have been imo better? Take your step ladders with you the next time you visit this scene, though balancing your tripod - if you used one - on top could be tricky? Overall I like the processing and I can see what attracted you to the subject.

I took this shot from four different angles (elevations) and this one really hits the spot. More space loses the slight but to me, very important sense of upward grade, too little and the top of the gate and the ridgeline become one in the same, less the ground takes on too much importance and I lose the value of the sky.

30.434163,-85.273175 If you zoom in real tight, it will show you the street view, almost exactly as I've shot it.

[David Eckels]

Very nice conversion. Gate stands out from the background without becoming over dominant. I would have f'd this up with shallower DOF. Well done, IMO!

[RSL]

I like it, Chris, but I tend to agree with Stamper. On the other hand, I can see that from this camera position, higher and more downward would have created a different problem. Maybe wider lens, closer, and higher. I can play with it in my mind, but I need to try it with a camera. In any case, it was very good seeing.

[Chris Calohan]

Thanks, everyone for your comments and critique. I gave a lot of thought to going to the 18-105 but it doesn't have the crispness of the 50mm and it would have created other problems.I've shot this same gate about ten times for about a year now with a variety of lenses. I'll take my truck next time and shoot from the bed on a tripod and see what I can conjur up. I did like those clouds.

I put a 4' level on those gates one time and they are nicely assembled with only a -1 degree drop from right to left center, and a 1/2 degree from left to right center. Made lining up that horizon a whole lot easier.

[William Walker]

Hi Chris

To be honest, as a picture to look at in the way one were to look at a landscape, I can't say it does too much for me.

However, what it does do, is raise an emotion in me that I have not felt for a while. I am immediately irritated by the fact that someone has locked the gate and does not want me to see what is at the end of that long road. The same feeling I get at any show of authority. The closed gate and the lock and chain really "hack me off", as we used to say in this neck of the woods.

So, in that sense, this picture has affected me more that a lot of the "pretty" pictures (that I strive for!!).

Thank-you.
William

[s.j. luke]

I really like this picture, and the horizon is just right. But the vertical bar that intersects the receding road stops me from going out there. Perhaps that was your intent. If so, it works. But I want to travel that road, badly.  I would have cloned out the top part of that rod and kept it away from the horizon. (unless that's a no-no in landscape photography).
Thanks for posting.

[Chris Calohan]

I really like this picture, and the horizon is just right. But the vertical bar that intersects the receding road stops me from going out there. Perhaps that was your intent. If so, it works. But I want to travel that road, badly.  I would have cloned out the top part of that rod and kept it away from the horizon. (unless that's a no-no in landscape photography).
Thanks for posting.

It was as you surmized, intented to stop you from seeing what's "up there." I was very careful in placing the bar so it exactly centered in the frame, piercing the horizon, in its own way holding all three elements together: the Fence, the Road and the Sky.