Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What feelings does this evoke?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
This was shot along the Dempster Highway of the Yukon. The tundra in this area is dotted with small ponds that probably freeze up in the winter. I traveled far and wide looking for subjects to photograph before realizing the best was under my nose. This small pond became especially beautiful when the wind ceased and the water became like a mirror. The clouds were an added bonus. Storms seemed to pass by almost daily.
I really like this image, the blues in the sky, pond and mountain are subtly complimented by the fore ground grasses.
If I had one suggestion it would be to dodge the center strip of grass and bushes above the pond. Lightening that area a bit should enhance the compliment and make the image pop. Maybe take it about 1/3 to 1/2 the way to the foreground grasses. Or to just above where the grasses on the RC are now.
What does this evoke? Peace, quiet and tranquility. “You could hear a pin drop…” or perhaps more realistically… I can hear the fish surfacing creating the faint ripples… or perhaps it was a bird skimming the surface for mosquitos…
And to that reaction, the processing just seems perfectly appropriate. The light and contrast in the grasses is subdued - contributing to the tranquil feeling and reaction.
Having said that, if I was going for more impact and/or a “pretty” image with pop, I would brighten the grasses up front because the colors/contrast are a bit muted. Now this isn’t a “fix” or correct, just an observation depending on how one might want to present this. I strongly suspect (haven’t read comments yet) that your intent is about the quiet, maybe remoteness, “untouched” or “found” beauty that the Artic is expected to be.
One small technical - The shadow areas in the mountains and especially in the reflection are leaning pretty blue, which may or may not be intented. very minor, an observation.
A wonderful and yes, sublime image. Beautifully seen and presented.
My first impression is that it’s a beautiful, peaceful place. I can relate to how you must have felt while experiencing it. The foreground grass offers a lot in the opportunity to include some nice colors, textures, and details. Nothing really to suggest. I see the bit of blue in the shadows and clouds tha Lon addressed. I could go either way with that. I have been trying to be mindful of that in my own editing as of late. But I still like a bit of color in my grey clouds. I find myself looking at monsoon skies at sunset often. Always looking for those blues, cyans, and purples that seem to be there in the image files!
I love the mood - the dim, flat light gives it a melancholy air, but at the same time the horizontals give a feeling of calm. The rework is perfect, as the blues were a bit too saturated for me in the original (that was the first thing I thought - too blue). Wouldn’t change a thing in the rework.
I guess I feel the rework is a watered down version of the original. It’s interesting because I like the watered down approach of the British landscape photographers but when I have to make a choice on my own work I usually go for the color. Perhaps I have to adjust my thinking. It’s easy to get into the saturation mode when you’re shooting with Fuji. Each camera maker has influenced me when I use them.
To be honest the colors were incredible when I shot this image. I remember the grasses in particularly. The scene made you gasp. And it only lasted about twenty minutes. BTW, I don’t find this melancholy at all. I was pumped when I saw this. Nor did I find this peaceful. I found it dramatic.
If you had your eyes on the yellow tinged grass whilst walking along and then looked up and saw the mountain reflection in the lake I can very much believe you would have seen exactly what you depicted in the first image due to eye and colour latency, the blue tones become exaggerated and the opposing hues tend to sing out and it quite probably attracted you to photograph it, but slowly your eyes self adjust and the scene normalises, shortly after I am willing to believe that the second depiction is perhaps the more accurate rendition, the question is perhaps what version of the scene most closely aligns with the impact it had on yourself. Just for the record I have witnessed colour latency myself when walking into a dazzling autumnal woodland from an open landscape it gradually starts to appear far less impactful when the eyes self adjust, closing your eyes for 30 seconds or so restores the colour impact you initially saw and despite my general preference for more muted colours. I process for the initial impact it had on me. Hope that makes sense.
Thank you for this excellent comment. I absolutely get it. You are undoubtedly right even though I was unaware of it at the time. I recently watched a program about color on this. Color perception is apparently not absolute. Even though blue and yellow each have a given wavelength when they are next to each other we perceive the yellow as more yellow and the blue as more blue. Apparently true of all complementary color combinations. Really useful to know. Thank you for bringing it up and correctly analyzing the situation.
Regarding the title of this image and why it was chosen:
Edmund Burke defines Sublime in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Burke proposes that beauty stimulates love, but that the sublime excites horror. While beauty relaxes, the sublime brings tension. The feeling that something is sublime is triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive light.
