Divided we stand

Image Critiques Abstract Nature Critiques
1

Divided we stand
Divided we stand2048×1534 1.2 MB

Image Description

This photo is but one from a huge ongoing project of mine that saw its birth several years ago but didn’t start to take real form until this last December when I fully immersed myself into the abstract possibilities of winter. The project is made up of several series of drone photos, all taken straight down over a few of my local ice, snow and water pattern riddled lakes. Some of them are huge (up to 200MP) multi-row panos but this one is just a single exposure.

This far, the project contains about 320 (from perhaps 2000) abstract photos that I expect to have shrunk to 100-150 by the time I’m done. It could end up as a book with individual series serving as chapters in a greater context/story but at the moment, I think of them as interconnected print series.

I view this particular photo as a top 50 photo rather than a top 5 one, it’s primary merit being that it’s unique among its peers. But I thought, in the context of the project, that it would be interesting to see how far it could reach on its own and what you might see as potential improvements. It’s also one of a very low percentage that hasn’t seen processing that would break the Natural Landscape Photography Awards. The reason for this is that most of
the RAW files are very low contrast and the story I see and wish to convey isn’t.

Hunting for and shooting these photos, has by far been the most productive period in my 13 years of taking my photography journey seriously. I find that the freedom and speed that a drone offers is extra exhilarating during the colder season when the subjects line up the way they do on a frozen lake.

While it’s (perhaps too) easy to quickly take several alternative compositions of this kind of subject with a drone, this photo actually has no such “competition”.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.

  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.

  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

As mentioned above, this is not among the very best from the project IMO, and the reason I feel this way is primarily that while the photo is fairly symmetrical in composition/layout, the content of the two “sides” isn’t, making it feel a bit imbalanced.

Technical Details

It’s a single, uncropped 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO100 Mavic 3 Classic (mFT, so 2x crop) shot, lightly processed in Lightroom Classic.

2 Likes
2

Very interesting image Stephane; things look so different and unique from high up! This definitely sends a message of the starkness and cold of a winter’s day. The dark line of the river adds some interest to the snowy landscape and I like its diagonal position in your frame. Your photo covers a lot of territory and I find myself enlarging to discover what the tiny dots are all about.

3

Hi Stephane. That is a very cool photo. I enjoy its abstract nature while also being able to pick out those tiny branching rivers in the ice that i really like capturing when i photograph the ice. I think the highest praise i can offer is that i would really like to see the rest of the series once you are done with it. Have you posted more online somewhere?

4

Thank you very much, @Jim_Lockhart. Having shot only this kind of subject and photo for the past few months, it’s incredibly valuable and interesting to know what “the outside world” see and feel when exposed to the results!

5

Thank you for the praise, @Cameron_Wilcox! :blush:
As I’m very good at neglecting both social media and my own website, there’s only one other recent photo from this project out there and it’s on Vero (https://vero.co/stephanejean/g-Cds9Qmd8qTzdSHFPsRs58t). Then there are just a few 4-5 year old ones on my website over at https://photo.stephanejean.com/Galleries/Looking-Down/ of which maybe 2-3 might find their way into the larger project.

That website is really due for a spring cleaning and refill (I don’t think that there’s anything from the last 3-4 years) and possibly a complete makeover but as this current project will be such a major part of it, it’ll have to wait. So anyone daring a visit will risk having to suffer through some “pretty old and musty stuff” hiding in the corners and that doesn’t belong there anymore. :wink:

6

Stephane,

Outstanding natural abstract. The viewpoint of course is spectacular - but what is so great about this is that this could very well be a macro image as well! Even microscopic. There is great mystery of the origins of this (minus the drone knowledge of course…)

Wonderful work on your site. Hope to see you post more and good luck with your ambitious Project! Keep us posted!

Lon

7

Stéphane, I commend you on the project and for the image. What I love about it is the ambiguity of scale, the graphic art qualities, the expanse, the illusion that this could be a microscopic world as Lon mentioned. The image looks great technically and aesthetically. The aerial perspective in wintery conditions reminds of the work of Gheorghe Popa and his ice anamoty images.

I’m going to check out your work on VERO since I’m on that platform and also your site. Thanks for sharing this and hope to see more of your images here!

8

Thank you so very much, @Lon_Overacker and @Alfredo_Mora! Your comments and encouragements are both inspiring and enlightening, the latter because I’ve been so entrenched in the shooting, processing and now the sequencing that I’ve lost sight of the qualities you name.

I’ll try to fit this huge project (most likely portions of it) into the new project category once I start to feel in control of it.

Having this image reminding anyone of Gheorge Popa’ work also really warms my heart (I actually have several other photos that resembles the mentioned series even more). His work is just amazing and truly awe inspiring!

9

What a great image Stephane! I’ve seen some of these ice patterns before but it’s the split across the frame that makes it more visually interesting for me. It reminds me of the scars from an alien battlefield.

Compositionally, the curved break is a difficult one to frame. Usually people might try to put the ends in the corners of the frame but this can look awkward (and would here…). Given the main feature is those spider like patterns, I was wondering about reducing the visual weight of the top right area that doesn’t have them. Firstly, I tried to lift the dark areas a bit to balance things.

onr
onr2048×1534 535 KB

Then I thought about possibly using the weight of the top right at the bottom of the frame instead. I cropped a tiny bit from the darker area as well…

twr
twr1967×1534 497 KB

I think you’re onto a real winner and have some great work on your website too…

Competition wise, I’d be surprised if this didn’t get through to the later rounds because it is visually intriguing and I’ve not seen too many pictures like this before.

10

Thank you very much for the great feedback, @Tim_Parkin! I especially like, and will definitely implement your first suggestion!

I also really like your second idea, except for the curve of the break going upwards instead of downwards (even though I find that the crop slightly compensates for the compositional imbalance it introduces).

Again, thank you kindly for the insightful help and wonderful encouragement!

Cheers,
Stéphane

11

" Then there are just a few 4-5 year old ones on my website over at https://photo.stephanejean.com/Galleries/Looking-Down/ of which maybe 2-3 might find their way into the larger project." The images on the website give me a much better idea of what you are going for in the project and I strongly encourage you to keep pushing ahead with it. Clearly you have both the equipment and the skills using it to find and see and share remarkable images. I’ve often photographed ice on some of the Great Lakes in Central United States but only from commercial airlines—much higher, through less clear “optics”, and without the kind of precision you have in your choices. Keep on working on this, please, and keep us informed.

1 Like
12

Thanks John, I haven’t given up yet. But to be honest, I often have my doubts about how I’ll tie all this together. I mean, it’s so fun and easy to shoot them (I honestly can’t really help myself) and most of the processing is fairly quick too but handling and navigating this large a number of photos and having them tell one story (albeit in several chapters) is tough, at least as it’s the first time I do something like this. It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve started to think about my photography in this way, and then perhaps in series with a maximum of 10 photos. And then I haven’t really finished any of those series (being drawn to go out and shoot instead :wink:). I also find it hard to do this at home, where family is a constant distraction.

Luckily, I have an absolutely brilliant photographer friend with much more sequencing experience than me that is doing her best to help me. I’m perhaps also lucky in that there is no deadline (although that would perhaps have helped push me forward…?). And as spring approaches, the shooting will find a natural ending (unless I find a new subject to lure me away! :sweat_smile:)… :blush: