By the Cataracts of the Credit

[John R]

Partly taken at and near the Cataracts of the Credit River. Some times the snow falling and the sun was going in out- perfect light for those willing to brave the cold and snow.

JMR

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I believe these are hard subjects to take due to the complexity of the shapes - one easily gets confused.
My favourite is the first one, since it has some order in the chaos, same with the last one.
I believe these images need a big format to really work how probably intended.
I'm not sure I can really judge these in this format.

EDIT: I just wonder how raising the blackpoint in 2 and 3 might work to put some more order in them to have the twigs stand out better.

[John R]

I believe these are hard subjects to take due to the complexity of the shapes - one easily gets confused.
My favourite is the first one, since it has some order in the chaos, same with the last one.
I believe these images need a big format to really work how probably intended.
I'm not sure I can really judge these in this format.

EDIT: I just wonder how raising the blackpoint in 2 and 3 might work to put some more order in them to have the twigs stand out better.

Thanks for the comments. I am not into overprocessing and needlessly trying to "improve" my images or reality. I do creative images, and call them such- mostly sandwiches and in-camera techiniques. If they do not stand up with minimal processing and cropping, just like I used to do with slides, then so be it.

JMR

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Thanks for the comments. I am not into overprocessing and needlessly trying to "improve" my images or reality. I do creative images, and call them such- mostly sandwiches and in-camera techiniques. If they do not stand up with minimal processing and cropping, just like I used to do with slides, then so be it.

JMR

I can understand that well. Too much manipulation would take it away from being a photograph into the field of "digital artwork"....
I tried another approach to look at #2  and #3 again - I zoomed it to full the screen and
stepped back a few meters to lose detail. Another attempt was to shut my eyes halfway
to blur the details. Both approaches helped to get over that feeling of confusion and see
the shapes in the images better.
After looking this way again at #2 and #3 I came to another idea which would affect the
shooting situation: Open aperture with shallow depth of field to have the darker parts in the
background blurred and the twigs sharp.

Cheers
~Chris

[John R]

I can understand that well. Too much manipulation would take it away from being a photograph into the field of "digital artwork"....
I tried another approach to look at #2  and #3 again - I zoomed it to full the screen and
stepped back a few meters to lose detail. Another attempt was to shut my eyes halfway
to blur the details. Both approaches helped to get over that feeling of confusion and see
the shapes in the images better.
After looking this way again at #2 and #3 I came to another idea which would affect the
shooting situation: Open aperture with shallow depth of field to have the darker parts in the
background blurred and the twigs sharp.

Cheers
~Chris

Not sure what you are trying to say; If you don't like the image and you think it doesn't succeed, that's fine. The depth of field was deep to ensure a slow shutter speed; and in the two tree images, there was little wind. The reason the image appears blurry or soft in some areas is because it was snowing and that is what, in part, I was trying to capture. It is more obvious in the second image where I framed in such a way that you can more readily see the snow streaks. It was the feeling of snow blowing that I was trying to capture.

JMR

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Not sure what you are trying to say; If you don't like the image and you think it doesn't succeed, that's fine. The depth of field was deep to ensure a slow shutter speed; and in the two tree images, there was little wind. The reason the image appears blurry or soft in some areas is because it was snowing and that is what, in part, I was trying to capture. It is more obvious in the second image where I framed in such a way that you can more readily see the snow streaks. It was the feeling of snow blowing that I was trying to capture.

JMR

I see.
I think I simply overlooked the meaning of the snow streaks in the second image - I am not sure if this
is due to the more horizontal shapes of the twigs in the dark background, or if it is a matter of the way
of presentation here (internet low resolution etc.)
When I wrote that things above I had a different inner picture of them as you seemed to have
intended.
After all said, I believe I cannot really judge #2 and #3 due to format matters - I believe a moderately
sized print (at least 20*30 cm, better 40*60) would be necessary here.

I find this kind of motives extremely difficult. Same when trying to draw a tree with paper and
pencil or ink. Nature is so much chaotic in its shapes. I still find the challenge of it worth trying,
but I rarely make it myself so, that I'm content with a capture of this type of motive. The synthesis
of detailed chaotic lines and shapes and composition/structure/order I find very hard to achieve here.

So - its not just a "I don't like it" - I -subjectively- see an attempt to capture something very
challenging which is very hard to achieve IMO.

Cheers
~Chris

[alangubbay]

I do like the first and the last.  However the first, basically a fine picture, would be hugely improved with a greater dynamic range - full tones from white to black rather than the mushy greys as at present.  Alan