Golgotha

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

The title sort of tells what this image is about. It’s an emotional image. I’m wondering if it’s too dark as presented?

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

This was shot at Glacier NP next to a waterfall. All the spectators were attracted to the falls whereas I was attracted to the deadfalls on the opposite side of the road. It was raining on and off at the time. I set up the shot by the side of the road and a downpour ensued. I was only able to make one shot and then rushed back to the car.

Technical Details

GFX50R, 45-100mm, f/11

Specific Feedback

Any feedback is welcome.


Critique Template

Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.

  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
  • Emotional Impact and Mood:
  • Composition:
  • Balance and Visual Weight:
  • Depth and Dimension:
  • Color:
  • Lighting:
  • Processing:
  • Technical:
1 Like

Not too dark. Darker: it would be too difficult to see the skull; Lighter: it would become too evident. To have seen and then presented this scene so well is quite remarkable, but you do, in my opinion, possess a special ability and talent to do so with regularity. This is a very moving image. One of your best.

2 Likes

I really like the lighting and the mood of this one Igor. I’m not in love with the tree on the right though. I think if you cropped only the tree on the right that it would shift the balance just a bit which I think would give a bit better overall composition. I know that would push this into almost a square crop which I’m not sure is right either. . . I may be too formulaic with this one.

Igor,

Not understanding the title at all. My first impression is that this is an interesting study of lines. The darkness though give it an ominous feel which lends itself to the number of fallen trees.

Golgotha

[ gol-guh-thuh ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

  1. a hill near Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified; Calvary.

Igor,

Please excuse my ignorance. Now I understand why you titled it as such. Much more impactful!

Not too dark for the idea. I’m looking for the skull that Jim G. saw. There is a suggestion of that near the top of the mound. Did you see that, too?

No I didn’t. The other title I considered was ‘Broken’. The title is a suggestive of a feeling and doesn’t represent any real event. A calamity.

1 Like

Igor, The title makes your image special and further description isn’t necessary .It also has the right mood by the dark.

1 Like

Initial reaction - very artistic. I like the juxtaposition between the strong verticals and the mixed angled trunks a lot. Deeper reaction - I love the active scene of a living/dying forest. I see this so much where I live due to hurricane damage. I see the standing trees, then varying scenes of newly destroyed trees, older destroyed trees, and long ago destroyed trees and how it reflected the continual death and rebirth of nature. I just returned from a week in the swamp just a week after hurricane Debby came through and similar scenes were everywhere. It’s amazing how fast nature begins the recovery process and also how quickly animals do the same. Lovely scene!

1 Like

Very striking image Igor. The vertical and diagonal lines of the tree trunks work very nicely together and no the image is not to dark as presented; at least for me. I think if you went lighter it would negate the somber mood.

1 Like

My initial reaction was the other definition, “A place or occasion of great suffering.” With that in mind, I don’t think it’s too dark at all. The broken trees over the mysterious structure (rock?) imprisoned by the surrounding trees needs the dark to pull off the mood.

Igor, the mix of vertical and angled trunks looks great and the moodiness stands out. I like how the green at the bottom leads to the angled trunk near the right corner which then leads back to the big rock and all of the fallen trees. Those angles contrast very well with all of the vertical trunks. My thought on darkness depends on how you would show this. For me, it would be too dark to hang on a wall (but I like bright, light surroundings) while it works well as presented on a backlit screen. Yes, brightening could easily destroy the mood that you are looking for and there are lots of folks who decorate in dark tones.

2 Likes