Winter At Kankakee Sands

[Dave Pluimer]

Good evening,

This is my first post on LL. Here are a few images of a Nature Conservancy project in northwest Indiana (Newton County) known as the Kankakee Sands. These were shot this past Sunday after about 6" of fresh snowfall. All images were taken with a Canon 6D and either a Canon 17-40 f/4 L or Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L. All post in Lightroom 4. Comments and critiques are very welcome. I have much yet to learn.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Good series of images, the light is very good. I also like the complementary colours of the sky, snow, and shrubs.

[francois]

I have to [happily] agree with Paulo, the light is sweet and the frozen ground color plays so well with the cold blue sky.

[batmura]

The first one is fantastic!

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

The 1st to me appears as the strongest and clearest composition. I like this one.
Number 2 seems to be about the sidelight touching the snow and painting the relief together with the grass shadows. Here I think you need some work / recomposing / cropping to get the message stronger.
Number 3 I don't know what it's about. The grass? Then getting nearer might do the trick. The sky?
Number 4 is too cluttered with the sign imo - what is it about?

Cheers
~Chris

[sdwilsonsct]

Nice, Dave. I struggle a bit with the white balance in my snow shots, and find that a bit more blue in the shadows feels right to me.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

First, welcome!

I'll go against the grain (should I add "as usual"?). The third one would be my choice (e.g., if you were selling them). It denotes the crispness in the air and that would be what the image is all about. It is also the only one where the sky is not muddy, but life-affirming, crispy, happy blue of a sunny, cold winter day.

From the advent of digital, I never liked how it renders overblown sun. It does not have the gentle transition of film, thus the best alternative is to avoid having it in the frame, unless it is almost touching the horizon. The next best would be to use a rather small aperture (say f/16 or f/22) to turn it into a star effect (and risking diffraction, I know, I know)

[thierrylegros396]

I prefer the first and the fourth.

Well done.

Thierry

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Reluctant as I am to disagree with anything Slobodan says, I think I'll go with the grain on this one. I find the first one very satisfying, and the others less so.

[Dave Pluimer]

First, thanks for all of the comments and feedback. Several points were raised that I hadn't considered while making the images. Those finer decisions and details are things I need to focus more on.

A bit of background. These were shot for a local photography competition where Nature Conservancy locations were given extra consideration. The goal I had was to capture what I thought was the essence of the property (about 7000 acres of mostly flat tall grass prairie and wetlands). What I thought was important, too, was how nature preserves like this run right up to crop fields. In northern Indiana where this is, it's tough to see one without the other. Christoph - the sign in the forth was an attempt to drive home the educational element of the location. As to the sun, what wasn't on my mind -but should have been- was to take some suns -1 to -? stops and blend them later in post. The thought, though, was that the sun itself was contrast to the undisturbed snow. I think I see know that the sunlight was a stronger element.

Thanks again, everyone. I've learned a lot here.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

...
Christoph - the sign in the forth was an attempt to drive home the educational element of the location.
...

Ah okay - now I see.
BTW - some gorgeous stuff on your website!
Cheers
~Chris

[vazuw55]

I am an old guy who grew up playing in Miller beach as a kid in the 50s and 60s. I was there visiting about 2 years ago, and the dunes still looked as I remembered them. Its nice to see that area get some attention.

[dhancock]

Great job! Your subject looks like it was a difficult to capture, but you did a great job. All of them are nice, but #2 is my personal favorite.