Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Jeremy Roussak on December 22, 2011, 02:34:35 pm
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Comments?
Jeremy
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It works very nicely for me. Nice colors, and a more interesting composition than most canyon photos I've seen recently.
And it sure doesn't look like the typical English countryside! ;)
Eric
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Jeremy, The light is elegant. Very nice. Where is it?
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Beautiful lighting in a dramatic setting.
It's probably just me, but I feel a bit cut off without somewhere to "go" in the photo. I follow the "foreground" ridge but then I want to explore that shadowed area in the top left or the peaks that are not quite visible in the top right, so come back to the foreground ridge without having gone anywhere. There is a subtle difference between "leaving your audience wanting more" and having an incomplete composition. Although this is a wonderful photograph, I feel it is more of the latter than the former. Perhaps if it was more abstract than real, I would be more content with the composition (although I am not advocating making it abstract!)
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Thanks, all. Interesting thoughts, Terry. Russ, it's the Grand Canyon, taken from Grandview Point. Eric, you must have studied geology!
Jeremy
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Eric, you must have studied geology!
Ha! That is a laugh.
Whenever I visit a National Park, I generally at some point attend one of the park naturalist's talks on geology, and I always find it quite fascinating. And by the time I leave the park I've forgotten just about everything I heard. That's what makes the next talk just as interesting.
Here's what I think I remember abut geology at this point in time: Glacier-formed valleys are usually U-shaped, while river-formed ones are V-shaped (or is it the other way around?). My vast vocabulary of geologic terms includes (and is pretty much limited to): "granite," "schist," and "basalt." Isn't that gneiss?
Your photo is a different view of the GC from any I've seen, although it sure looks like something from the Southwestern U.S.
As for Terry's feeling of being "cut off without somewhere to 'go' in the photo," I think that is part of the expressive appeal of this image for me, because it is so difficult to go cross country in canyon lands; there's always another ridge to cross with an impossible drop on the other side, etc., etc.
The photo expresses this ambiguity for me very well: the warm colors invite you in, but the layer upon layer of cross-wise ridges send the message that "you can't get there from here."
I wish I'd taken that shot.
Cheers,
Eric
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The Grand Canyon always makes you understand how miniscule you are in the scheme of things. And if you study that huge and very beautiful hole in the ground for a while you begin to understand that without the help of something in creation more powerful than yourself you really are "cut off without somewhere to 'go.'"
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The photo expresses this ambiguity for me very well: the warm colors invite you in, but the layer upon layer of cross-wise ridges send the message that "you can't get there from here."
I wish I'd taken that shot.
Thanks, Eric. I can't think of a better compliment.
Jeremy
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Nice photo Jeremy.
I would dread having a camera with me here and having to shoot something.