As everyone probably knows, California has been getting more than its share of rain lately. To my delight there have been massive puddles everywhere (although I do feel for folks that have been flooded out in other areas).
This is the edge of the parking lot down at the art gallery where I volunteer. The curve of the curb disappearing into the water was just lovely framed by the reflections.
Specific Feedback Requested
Is the lower right corner too reddish? I liked the color, but maybe it draws the eye too much. There’s some softness down in that corner, too, but it doesn’t bother me.
What about the stick in the middle? I probably should have fished it out, but I didn’t. And now I’m ambivalent about it. If I were to print this, I’d probably clone it out.
Technical Details
iPhone 14, dodging/burning, minor cloning of tiny bits in PS.
This is really something. Lovely image. I would think about removing the stick in the middle myself, but it doesn’t bother me much. The image is a compositionally excellent.
The composition is great with the different circular elements and the framing of the tree in the lower right corner. The cropping is also very good including (parts of) the elements in a pleasing way. For me the mood of the image is “gray” so I am not very keen of the reddish color in the LRC. The beauty is anyhow there only with the geometrical shapes of the circular parts, the tree reflections and the leaves, the reddish color is IMO not necessary to achieve beauty. Along the same line of thinking you could also delete the orange leave near the center of the image.
The story of the image is told by the image title, and I find that the image then tells that story. Without the title I do not know if I would have identified such a story (mostly due to the fact that I personally have problems with this part of image making).
The image is very creative and at the same time beautiful and makes me very interested in to explore all parts of it.
Bonnie, I love this very creative image! What a fine catch. This image just goes to show that you can find creativity anywhere. I’m glad California is getting the rain it so desperately needs, but also hate that it came with flooding homes. Hmmm, I really like the red in the LC. I love that you can see the leaves at the bottom of the pool too which have some color. I really can’t say if it would look better with a little less red - maybe. What I usually do when I can’t decide is make a copy, lighten the red, save it and let the images seat for a day. Usually the next day, it becomes more obvious which one I prefer. I think you have a winning photo.
That thought had occurred to me, too, that it was overall a bit grayish. I do like the reddish corner, though, so perhaps adding color to the other parts could balance it. So, I cooled the left-ish side for some blue to balance the blue.
Definitely. Or else it’s the moment after you post and you realize what you should have done differently.
Boy @Bonnie_Lampley , I had to look at both of them for a while to determine if I liked your rework better. I think after going back and forth, I might be gravitating toward the rework. I think the blue softens the tree reflections. I like the stick being cloned out.
Oh, it wasn’t painful! I enjoy doing a rework to see what the suggestions might do. Usually, they help the image and make me think, “why didn’t I think of that?”.
A bit late here, but I couldn’t let this go by without adding my kudos! A wonderfully seen, captured and presented image. The story pretty self explanatory and most certainly appropriate for the series of storms we’ve been enduring.
You rework is excellent. And I’ll keep repeating, but I love your uncanny ability to spot and recognize such wonderful imagery from every day subjects we all take for granted. Well done!
I don’t know how you find these wonderful images Bonnie. This is just lovely. I am absolutely sure that I would be walking past it without even noticing.
I particularly enjoy the lower right section of the image for its colours and abstract(ness). I’ve taken the liberty of cropping into just that bit to show you what I mean. To me, it makes a lovely abstract. Hope you don’t mind. Cheers.
Thanks, @Phil_G. Your crop does work, but my vision was to include the curving curb because I thought it looked cool. And I have scads of tree reflections by themselves so this framing felt more interesting to me.
