Deep Hole

Image Critiques Abstract Nature Critiques
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RRF_190303_0131.jpg
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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

Is the sky in the reflection a distraction?

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

Reflection of the Black Mountains on the glass-smooth surface of a small pond in the salt flats of Badwater Basin, Death Valley NP, creates the illusion that there is a deep hole in the desert floor.

Technical Details

Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 28-70mm @ 28mm; f/8 @ 1/80 sec, -1 EV, ISO 400; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55; tripod, remote trigger

Specific Feedback

Whatever you think, positive or not

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Hi Bob, this is a very interesting composition. I do like the reflected sky; with the rocky cliff it provides a nice diagonal leading line into the background. Nice capture overall.

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Thank you @Jim_Lockhart for your comments. My experience with reflections of this nature confuse the general public because they cannot comprehend that the image is inverted, it is, after all, a reflection. It is an abstract.

4

Bob, I don’t find the sky a distraction. It does edge the image a bit further away from abstract though since it provides context to the larger landscape. Regardless, I quite like the reflection and broken patterns in the ice leading the eye to it. That single ice island is a wonderful element. Nice work spotting this.

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An alternate crop below

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Thank you @Alfredo_Mora for the alternative view. I looked at that composition when I was in the field and when processing later. Somehow it just doesn’t convey what I want to say.

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