Yup, yet another image from our Point Reyes trip now over a month ago. It seems I was a volume shooter this trip. I can say though, that for whatever reason, I felt like a kid in a candy store.
Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder as they say. No drama here, nothing epic… I think I’m just attracted to the combination and diversity of the elements and I find it challenging - and also very satisfying to craft a composition out of the apparent chaos of the dune environment.
Specific Feedback Requested
I’m very curious to learn how you see this and what your impressions are.
As always, your feedback and suggestions are always welcome.
After loading, I’m wondering if the reds are too much in the ice plant. I’ll have to see how this looks after I hit save. I spent more time than usual on this one in post, so your feedback will be appreciated!
Technical Details
Nikon D800E, 28-300mm @34mm, 3-image focus stack in Helicon f/16 1/2 s. iso 100
Really lovely image, Lon! I love the combination of colors, textures and shapes. It’s a small scene but mimics a grand landscape in some sort of way that I can’t describe. It has a very happy feeling to it. Beautiful work as always!
Lon, I can understand your candy store feeling . Al those forms and colors in a natural composition . Away from all the big landscapes to maybe the essence of nature in the smaller. Beautiful image !!
Yup – I can attest to the kid in a candy store behavior! And to the fact that it got you some very excellent results! I love the composition here – there are many diverse elements but you have found a very pleasing way to fit them together with flowing visual lines.
You definitely found a better selection of candy than I did in these dunes – I need to work on that next time out there. (But I’m very happy with the other things I found, and greedy for another trip.)
This is all very harmonious, Lon! It just works. The ice plant is the anchor for everything else and the dry, wispy grasses are what make my wander so easily…in a good way. By the way, the reds in the ice plant look very normal to me. Those are some very lively sand dunes.
Lon, this is just a lovely scene to behold. I find it to have a very pleasant pastel-like attraction but with plenty of interesting textures and shapes of the various plant mounds and other parts of the topography.
I must admit that the iceplant does seem to have a bit too much red for me. We have a lot of iceplant and I don’t see that bright red colour in it. I find that it keeps drawing my eye back down to the bottom left corner of the image and somehow stops my view from resting anywhere else further back, especially at the (to me anyway) very interesting central portion with the tufts of grasses and different shades of green. Cheers.
Yeah, I struggled with that. The foggy/overcast condition above made for flat light and I am probably over-compensating with added contrast and saturation.
For sure, the diversity of color in the iceplant was amazing! from summer green to yellow-green, to orange, red, crimson, maroon…
I posted the below for reference in a previous post. This one doesn’t even show all the different hues/colors, but a touch of red at the bottom is included for reference. But also, some “help” in PS with contrast/saturation.
But I do think you’re right, this one is on right on the border of believability? Thanks for the comment and observation!
Lon, upon looking at this again, I think the reds and even the greens in the foreground ice plant are a little too vibrant and the reds have almost gone pink/purple which, by the way, is not unusual for ice plant but I think maybe it’s gone slightly too far. It seems to have a different luminosity value than everything behind it, almost like it’s glowing for lack of a better word and with a yellow white balance. At any rate, I think this is a wonderful image that let’s the eye freely wander from top to bottom and edge to edge with color, texture, lines and soft light. I think this is my favorite of the ones posted from this area.
