Calm After the Storm

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

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

I tried to capture that sense of both calm and the cold season. What are your first impressions when seeing the image?

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

I attended the Elemental Creative Retreat with Paul Zizka and Stasia Schmidt in the Yoho National Park earlier this month. I arrived a day early, and the first significant snow was falling. The next morning was magically quiet, a whole new season.

This scenic location drifted toward hibernation. While the area around the lodge was bustling and busy with managing snow and ice, and guest arrivals and departures, the natural environment on the lake shore just accepted the new conditions.

Technical Details

Canon 5diii
100-400mm L at 176mm
ISO 160, f/9, 2.5 seconds

Minimally processed in LR. Nearly monochromatic out of camera, but desaturated a bit, blacks deepened, sharpened.

Specific Feedback

I’m especially emotional feedback, and whether the aesthetic appeal conveys this feeling of both cold but also a kind of seasonal calm, quiet, hibernation in nature. I have been slowly working through David DuChemin’s “Shoot What It Feels Like” class online.

Critique Template

Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.

  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
  • Emotional Impact and Mood:
  • Composition:
  • Balance and Visual Weight:
5 Likes
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@Marylynne_Diggs ,

Stunningly quiet and serene photo. I especially love the hanging cloud center frame. Great work.

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My reaction too. This is exquisite Marylynne; it has to be one of my favorites that I have seen from you. I love the layering, and the amount of snow on the trees is just right to add an elegance. I suppose a pristine reflection would be fun to compare, but I’m not sure it would be better because the softness of the reflection adds to the layering effect. No nits from me; congratulations on a beauty.

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Mmmmm. Yup. This is a calm beauty, as John said. Nothing I would change! I think you have the color temp (blue) just right for that sense of cold, and I really like how the shoreline is top third of the comp, allowing more room for the reflection. Just enough crispness in some of the trees to contrast with the softness of the rest of the image. Really lovely Marylynne. -Connie

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Hi John,
Thank you for the feedback. Yeah, there is that little line of disturbance in the water. I don’t know what caused it. I have the immediately preceding frame, less processed and much brighter (exposure lowered, highlights and whites -80 or so in post). Still some disturbance in the water. It might be fog or mist, but it’s very linear.

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ML

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Marylynne, this is both chilly and calm…definitely an “aaahhhh” moment, where the blue tones make the chill and the subtle motion in the water set off the snowy trees. The framing top and bottom with the cloud and it’s reflection is nice, also.

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This is a fantastic photograph! My main comment is, WOW, I wish I had taken this! Not that I’m jealous or anything :slight_smile: What stands out to me ‘emotionally’ is the large impact it delivers from intricate details of the trees which is echoed by the beautiful reflection in the super-calm water (it looks like a lake?). I also like the balance of a slightly larger foreground to smaller background. Just perfect really.

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Definitely evokes a sense of calm. In fact, I feel hypnotized. My eyes keep moving around and into the scene, looping through the clouds and reflections and zooming into the low hill on the right. Only minor comment is that it feels slightly off center vertically, with more water reflection than cloud, so possibly reframe slightly for symmetry to add to the calm feeling?

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Hi Marylynne, honestly not sure about the calm and storm but I do love the image with the reflections you created. Very mesmerizing and peaceful, almost monochromatic, which makes me wonder about a B&W version :thinking: :smiley:.

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Hi Jim,
I did play with a Black and White version, but it lacked the coolness of the nearly monochrome color version. I’m sharing it here for folks’ enjoyment. I think it might be a better image, but I like the color version personally.

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ML

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Thanks so much for sharing Marylynne, the B&W version is certainly interesting, but most of the time of prefer color myself also.

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This image is flat out gorgeous Marylynne! The cool blue tones are perfect for portraying the cold winter season and those graceful undulating wispy bands of fog add a sense of elegance to the image. While this definitely radiates a sense of cold I also find it inviting and hypnotic. The almost mirror like reflection id another wonderful element here. Beautifully done!

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Thanks, Ed. The inviting aspect is the hibernation element I was going for. That acceptance in settling in. Winter can be so cold, but I think it’s also a time of peace and rest,
ML