4x5 Crop
I spotted this arching Dogwood across the river and immediately sought out a way to incorporate it into a composition. Looking at it now, I wish I had placed the trunk of the tree either to the right, or more likely to the left of the two trees so they don’t all blend together. Hopefully another lesson learned.
The colors at the top may be a bit over saturated for my taste, I’ve been messing with them so much though that I had to walk away!
Beautiful!! I don’t mind the trunks being together. If you had moved you would have missed what I think is the perfect placement of the water, with its perfect shutter speed. The top area may be a bit bright – you might consider a gradient with slightly lowered saturation or brightness.
David,
A beautiful and tranquil scene. I just love being by the river like this with all the senses being engaged - and this takes me there.
The trunk of the dogwood and their placement doesn’t bother me, but can understand why you may be second-guessing… Alas, the “bigger picture” is what I’m seeing and I too probably would have overlooked that little detail if I was there framing the shot. Not a biggie.
Not too unlike your previous image, there’s the 50/50 concern - is this about the water, flow, of the stream - OR the dogwood and spring greens of the forest. Together, it’s a lovely and beautiful image,
for me it raises the question, Is the dogwood the primary subject you’re after, or is it an accent or supplement adding to a broader scene? I think it’s the latter. Not close enough to the dogwood to make it the main subject. And with that, you might consider cropping off the top just enough to tell the viewer the spring greens and dogwood are a complimentary accent to the bigger flowing river, spring image? I dunno, just thinking out loud. A crop to say produce a 1/3 - 2/3 balance rather than 50-50.
As presented I would knock down the yellow-green sat in those upper trees just a bit. Oh, and love the shutter speed and exposure in the water. Well done!
Lon
This is similar to your prior image which I like quite a bit. I think the 50/50 issue is particularly glaring because the two halves are so different and separated by a straight line. One half is green and the other dark. I would look into that when constructing a composition.
@Diane_Miller @Lon_Overacker @Igor_Doncov
Thank you all for the feedback. I’ve added a 4x5 crop. I have a hard time determining if these images are about the water, the trees, or just the sense of spring revival in general. When I was shooting, the Dogwoods were always a reason to stop the car, but they weren’t necessarily the primary subject, It was the spring greens surrounding the cascades and ripples in the water and a nice Dogwood or two to break that up.
I’m curious how to work around this in the field as you’ve suggested Igor. By including the most interesting parts of the water, that’s where the shore and land ended up falling. I guess my thought was more with where the elements were within the frame, not including the sky, etc. and the shoreline just seemed to fit where it did. Maybe I need to rethink that.
You found it! Hope I was able to help with the location. Anyways, loving the 4x5 crop. I think it brings more simplicity to the scene and also gives a good near-far perspective. Beautiful conditions.
David, I love the crop! IMHO now the dogwood, interestingly, has a more prominent place and importance, yet is a compliment to the scene, rather than complicating it.
For sure, you’re not alone in having difficulty determining what the image and scene are about. I struggle as well and in fact came upon nearly identical situation - and in search of dogwood in scenes just last week in Yosemite.
I think the answer is to just let it flow; there’s no need to force a composition and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying and trying to capture just the “general sense of spring” or simply a beautiful and inviting scene. Perhaps some of the answer is in the subtle things - like a 50/50 dividing line; not a deal breaker in most cases, but small things to make the scene and image the best it can be.
And BTW, a 50/50 comp can often be appropriate (reflections? and such) so don’t discount things like this out of hand, but apply as the situation calls. No hard rules, of course.
Thanks for taking the time to re-work.
A beautiful scene and a beautiful photo! I love the soft light and your 4x5 crop is right on.
The rework works really well. I was thinking of your previous image where the transition between water and land is more gradual. The new crop gives a wider image proportionally and I think that makes a difference as well. Nice image. Thank you for sharing.
David,
First I like your 4x5 crop better. Second, even though you might have stopped for the sake of the blooming dogwood, it not being the center of attention does not in anyway detract from the overall image. For me it is clearly an image about spring. Abundant flowing water, vibrant moss on the rocks, flowering dogwood, vivid green new leaf growth, and an overall sense of freshness is what makes this an enjoyable image. Sometimes individual elements in a photo can carry the whole photo and sometimes not any one element can but in concert all make the image. That is what I think is happening in this photo.
To me, this is mostly about the swirling water, and those beautiful outcropping of rocks, the moss and the lichen. Your shutter speed is sensational in this image and the splashing water in the foreground has great texture but also flow. Even better than your last image. The whites are very well tamed. I think the Spring greenery is a very nice compliment to the river particularly the horizontal branches of the dogwood and in the new 4x5 crop the dogwood becomes a more important and pertinent part of the scene. I much prefer the 4x5 crop by the way. This is a really nice takeaway from this location.
@james6 @Lon_Overacker @Tom_Nevesely @Youssef_Ismail @David_Haynes Thank you all for the feedback. I was listening to a podcast recently that struck a cord, essentially the photographers theory was to let it flow in the field, the time to improve composition is while you are at home studying images of your own and those made by others. Not to say that you disregard the details while shooting, but that it shouldn’t be forced. I believe the 4x5 crop makes a stronger image…I have to get over my aversion to cropping!
James…glad I could bring you out of retirement! Thanks for chatting while on the trip!
Igor, I went back and looked, I see what you are saying. While it is close to 50/50 there is no hard line as there is with this one. I could do some creative warping 
Youssef, I like that concept. Less of a hero and more of a collection of strong elements that work together. A collaborative image of sorts!
David, shutter speed was maybe my primary concern in the field. I spent a lot of time messing with different shutter speeds to try to get what I was looking for. I’m glad you like it!
I have looked at this quite a while and I do think that I agree that the 4X5 crop helps to feature the dogwood more prominently in the composition.
I also feel like the stream feels a little bit cramped. You may have been trying to avoid distracting elements, but I feel like I would like a bit more room to the left of the rocks and also on the right side of the frame so that the water has more of a place to go. I wonder if a landscape orientation might work better. Then again it comes down to the question of what you want to feature as the main subject. Shooting this scene in a landscape orientation would place less emphasis on the dogwood.
With all of that said, I think you have a nice image here. These are all just things to think about when you are in the field.
