A few shots for critique

[Karst]

Here are three photos taken last year, each of which kind of captures the experience we had on the hike. I'd appreciate comments I already know I don't put enough people in my photos and I am working on getting some foreground into my photos to generate additional interest.

First photo is looking East at about 9AM along the AT about 2 miles North of Charlie's Bunion in the Smokies last March. What I like about it is the endless series of ridges - I can make a case for 11 visible.

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Second pair of photos is heading down off the Continental Divide into a grove of trees in the San Juan Mountains with a thunderstorm threatening. We had been above treeline for two days with thunder and lightning occurring all around us but not on top of us - until this storm came up. I like the second photo - it seems cleaner to me, but the first one has some foreground interest with the trail.

So, I'd appreciate any thoughts folks have on the photos themselves and how they could have been made more interesting.

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[NewHampshire]

I already know I don't put enough people in my photos and I am working on getting some foreground into my photos to generate additional interest.

Honestly, my style of photography is more "on the fly" too. I compensate by taking as many photos of the same subject from as many angles as possible.

So now for the critique. I am sorry, but I have to be totally honest..........they look VERY well done.

Ok, the first one: Lovely pastel tones make for an exquisit fade. If there is but one thing that could be fixed is it appears there is a lot of haze making things a bit blurry. But its not that bad.


Second: The yellow flowers add for an interesting foreground, and the dark sky behind makes a nice backdrop. Lovely colors and interesting leading lines.

Third: Obviously either a crop of the previous picture or a seperate using a different angle. In this one you added some more cloud features at a sacrafice to some foreground detail. Its nice, but the previous angle is the better of the two.

Well done!

Brian

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I like both scenes very much. You did a good job to recognize and capture the dramatic potential in both. Having people walking through or gazing into either of these scenes could provide human interest, however, I believe both scenes have enough scenic content to work as straight landscapes.

I am a big fan of endless ridge photos, and this is a nice one. It appears that the focus is a bit soft. Most likely you have some camera shake from a slow shutter speed. If you could have found something to support the camera or used a higher ISO setting you might have gotten a sharper photo.

I prefer the second photo over the third photo primarily because the sunlight is a bit stronger, and that enhanced the very dramatic contrast between the sun drenched landscape and the dark clouds. I would recommend cropping out the two white sticks or rocks at the bottom of the second photo (as you did in the third photo). These white objects do not add any interest to the scene, and they draw the viewers attention away from the landscape. The trail could be helpful if it led into the scene, but it appears to lead left out of the photo and leads the eye that way. So no harm in cropping out the trail either. Similarly the white clouds at the top of the third photo draw the eye away from the landscape. You produced a better photo by cropping that out of the second photo. Another advantage of the second photo is the dark, distant peak on the left. It is a nice contrast to the sunlit hill on the right. Another feature I like is that the bright sunlit summit is partially obscured by trees. If there was interesting on that summit, then it would be good to try to position the hill's summit through the gap in the trees to offer a clear view. However, since it appears to be a barren summit I believe you made the optimal decision to hide it a bit. The small groups of trees that we see on the hill are more interesting than a bare summit.

Overall these photos are effective landscapes. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Karst]

Mark and Brian -

Thanks for the feedback.

On the first one, even though it was around 9 AM there was very little light. I leaned the camera against a tree trunk as best I could but you are right, its still blurry. I guess I will never be a sniper.

On the pair, the second photo was taken 10 or so feet beyond the first. Great comments about cropping, I think I will monkey around with it a bit.

Thank you for your comments.