A Couple Mt Tom Pictures

[grouseking]

I took a hike up Mt Tom the other day, and I wanted to post a couple pics for some more honest feedback.

First one, I took a pic of Mattl walking off towards the summit. I wanted to get the effect Grumpy was saying with the snowarch pic I took, but I don't really think I did. Plus he's holding my Kestrel weather toy, so thats kind of annoying. Other than that though, its an "all right" picture.

And now, for a couple scenic shots. Comments, please.

I tried to capture solitude on these last two pics.

grouseking

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I like the third one the best. It depicts both solitude and the weather/conditions you encountered. The middle one has too much uninteresting sky.

The first one is too centered on MattL for my tastes. He's not "walking in" or "walking out", and I don't have any compelling "story" to go along with it. If he was actually measuring the weather and walking into the frame then composing the weather with measuring it has any interesting story.

Tim

 

[grouseking]

The first one is too centered on MattL for my tastes. He's not "walking in" or "walking out", and I don't have any compelling "story" to go along with it. If he was actually measuring the weather and walking into the frame then composing the weather with measuring it has any interesting story.

Tim

So, something like these?

grouseking

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I'd like the second one if the framing was pulled back and less sky was included. If you take the orientation of Matt in the 2nd shot, replace him in the 1st shot, and walk him in the direction he was facing by a few feet (rule of thirds) I think you would have what I was describing.

Tim

 

[grouseking]

I'd like the second one if the framing was pulled back and less sky was included. If you take the orientation of Matt in the 2nd shot, replace him in the 1st shot, and walk him in the direction he was facing by a few feet (rule of thirds) I think you would have what I was describing.

Tim

Heh, I'll yell at him later, he took that second picture, cause thats me standing there in the wind.

Interesting thoughts, and comments. Thanks. I included the picture down to Crawford Notch/Mt Webster because of the limited visibility/snow showers. That kind of gives the sense of the solitude, or at least that is what I tried to do.

grouseking

 

[DougPaul]

I'll vote for #3 in the first post. The peak is nicely framed.

#2 in the first post has no focus.

(And I don't generally like people as major elements in my natural scenes, so the others don't float my boat.)

Doug

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Of the first three photos I believe the third is the most effective. You did indeed capture the solitude of the summit, and it is a nice framing. In the first picture the figure does not stand out well amongst the trees - being the same height, and as Tim points out the composition is not as interesting as the later two human photos.

Of the last two pictures the second has a better placement of the human, as you are too close to the edge in the first. Unfortunately the sky is less interesting than the first, but this is still an effective photo.

 

[Grumpy]

Like others, the third photo in your original set appeals to me. (But as always, have you tried different compositions and cropping for it?)

I’ll dissent from the crowd and say your first photo is OK, in that it does show the relationship of the human to the environment. The human figure provides some scale for the trees. I suggest cropping some off the bottom of the frame (but not the top). The centered human figure (rule of thirds violation?) does not bother in this case. It is clear the person is headed back into the scene, toward the horizon. The splash of red on the backpack makes a big difference here, as well – it provides a bit of color in an otherwise nearly monochromatic scene.

As for the photos in your post #3, I find neither especially compelling, visually, although the first is more interesting to me because the “top” of the hill seems to be in sight. The question they both raise is, “what’s going on here?” I think these photos need explanatory captions to be really interesting. They also need some work on the technical side, to bring out a bit more detail in the human figures.

I do like the human element in hiking photos. Looking back through my extensive collection from 45 years of toting a camera on hikes, the photos of grand scenery are nice, but it’s the people pictures I am most likely to pause over. They are the ones that bring back warm memories of companions, characters met along the way and good friends, some of whom now are gone from our midst. Such photos are treasures.

G.