Dune in B-flat minor: Two Options

Image Critiques
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IMG5DMarkIV_0425NPN3MB-8.jpg2000×1333 673 KB

IMG5DMarkIV_0416NPN3MB-3.jpg
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Wider View

Critique Style Requested: In-depth

The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.

Self Critique

I’m debating whether either of these is a contender for a third in my Dune Chord Series, which started with high key and went progressively darker. Preston asked about my Dune in B-flat Minor, which I had planned as soon as I went high key in my other dune image, but I’m not sure I captured that in the field. I have an old image from Mesquite that might do that.

Both of these were shot the evening of the high key image, but later, as the shadows deepened. They are significant crops, but I’m not sure if that matters too much unless I print 3 feet on the long side.

Creative direction

After shooting my high key image, I really wanted to explore the variations on the dunes, their glaring mid-day personalities and their more somber moods. Musical vocabulary came to me with “high key” and I’ve been planning a return to guitar (after a 45 year absence) as part of my retirement and as a way of honoring my brother, who was an accomplished guitarist of the rock and roll sort.

This one is darker, and I think a little less curious, hence I think it can function as a minor chord, a bit melancholy, as night approached. I took this on my first adventure with boondock camping without my wife of 37 years, who passed away in 2024.

So, yes, lots of grief involved in this series, but I’m looking more for photography feedback than condolences.

Specific Feedback

I’m always interested in whatever feedback you have, including “this file is so cropped up that you just need to go back out there and shoot it again much closer with the long lens!” I love giving voice to my lower instincts like that. However, I’m especially wondering the following:

  1. Which of these two most feels like an evocation of grief, of melancholy, of B-flat minor?
  2. What would you do to enhance that effect?
  3. Are the darks too dark? Do I need to brighten the highlights on the more abstract composition?

Technical Details

Both were shot on tripod as sun was setting around 5:30 p.m.
Canon 5D4 with 100-400mm at focal lengths shown below:
–The wider view is at 200mm ISO 200, f/11, 1/200sec
–The more abstract is at 255 mm ISO 200, f/11, 1/60sec

Description

I was captivated by the shadows along the ridges and mini-cliffs of this dune, and I found the dune more interesting from afar as a result. I shot the dune in late morning and created a high key composition. I also shot it as the sun was setting and again the next morning. Because of its orientation, shadow and light moved greatly by time of day.

After I had all of these on my computer, I came up with the idea of associating them with musical chords, high key, minor keys, etc. This is both a creative flourish and an homage to my late brother, whom I lost a few months before losing my spouse in 2024. Yes, that’s all horrible (I won’t even mention when my mother passed), but creative connections with that sadness and grief are incredibly healing. The trip was an adventure in solo boondocking and wind phones, and all of that.

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This is an interesting subject. Darkness often gives a sense of melancholia. But smooth curves do not. So I could argue that this image is at odds with itself. But I’ve seen many images where such logic does not apply. Sometimes the object themselves supersede this. If you remember the scene in “Night of the Hunter” where Shelly Winters body is shown in the river with flowing algae around her. Somehow the tragedy is even more enhanced by showing her drowning beautifully. So sometimes contradicting messages work well.

I went through y images looking for a melancholy statement and came up with this one. I don’t know exactly why I find it so but it got to the point where I had to take it off my wall.

https://community.naturephotographers.network/t/mesquite/40650

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For me, the first shows more melancholy.
There is an emptiness and negative space in the picture, implying abandonment or loneliness.
B/W is contributing, no colors, no warmth. Also the soft tonality emphesizes that.
And probably foremost, the is no anchor for the eye, you could say someone is lost or roaming.
Maybe you can describe it as a picture of an inner landscape?
As an option, maybe to add a bit of blur (center or background), to emphesize the lost/roaming feeling?

The second with stronger shadows is more abstract and has “shape” in it and the shape is an anchor. So, the intension is a different one. Apologies for not having better words.

Thank you for sharing. That made me think…

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Thanks, Ralf. Your words were perfect. It was exactly the kind of differentiation I needed to hear.
ML

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I hear ya. In your image, there is a kind of grizzled end on display. It’s what we are all fighting against in some way. :innocent:
ML

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Hi Marylynne,
I have come back to this a couple of times as I tried to decide how to best answer your question. Both images are quite lovely and make great companion pieces and after much thought they evoke different moods to me. The first image; even with the graceful lines of the dunes; seems more melancholy as the range of tones is more compressed with no real highlights or dark shadows. I find the second one to be more bold and brash due to the wider range of tones while still retaining those graceful lines. I hope that makes some sense. Anyway, this is a fascinating series so far and a great homage to your loved ones.

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Thanks Ed. I felt that was true as well, and darker isn’t necessarily more re melancholy, so I needed feedback.
ML