The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was taken at Cottonball Basin in Death Valley in December of 2019. This is not an area of the park that gets a lot (if any) tourist visitors. I had walked quite a ways out to this point. The person in the photo was another photographer. My camera was not working well and would just quit randomly, so I missed a lot of shots on this visit.
Hi Chris! That’s a very cool shot. Sorry to hear about your camera, that sounds like a nightmare photo trip scenario. The person really gives scale to the photo. Without them it would be really difficult to figure out the scope of the photo. I like the way the water/reflection leads into the photo and the person. I might think about cloning out the two little rocks on the left side of the water area.
This is so beautiful and kind of haunting. Great leading line with the water going to the person in the distance. The blue in the hill is a nice counterpart and makes it look even lonelier.
What a nice shot! I love that the mountains in the background match the water and it’s a beautiful blue. That little stone in the MB even adds to this photo. The photographer give you a scale of how vast this country is. Like others, I really like the softness in this image. Nicely captured!
Love the soft pastel colours Chris. I would try brightening the figure in the background, to help reduce the contrast. Right now I find my eye gets drawn to them to often. Maybe even introduce a bit of the light brown colour. I think this would encourage the viewer to spend more time exploring the other parts of the image. I like the wide crop.
What an interesting image. The element of water is not often found in images of Death Valley. When I was there earlier this year I was in an area with some water but was not able to make image with it. I like the composition and the color contrast.
Chris, Photographer, Robert Frank (The Americans) said he wanted the viewer of his images to look at them at least twice as a reader of poetry would do with descriptive lines or a stanza in a poem. This image has me looking at it and then returning a looking some more, over and over. I fully agree with @Kris_Smith’s comments. To me, the person gives the eye and place to move toward guided by the lines in the water and lines coming off the mountain slope in the background as well. The person also adds an important theme of humanity in relation to the grandeur of nature. The person completes the image. And, the colors are perfect - superb.
While I appreciate the pastels and the solitude of the figure, I’ve always had a bit of an issue when a figure’s head intersects with the horizon line. I think a much better composition would have been to shoot from a lower angle which would eliminate that issue but would also include more of those soft hills in the BG without losing any of the water aspects of the shot.
