Hay Bales at Dawn

What technical feedback would you like if any?

I felt like I took a bit of a risk in using a shallow depth of field on this shot, and while I am happy with the results, I do have some mixed feelings. What do you think?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Any and all!

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

Yashica Mat-124, Ektar 100

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Jack,

Welcome to NPN! I must say quite an intriguing first post. I gotta ask what’s the back story here? These some alien hay bales? Never seen anything like this.

I think you did very well on your choice of the shallower depth of field. You didn’t mention the aperture, but the background is not grossly out of focus - enough focus to keep the context of the overall scene, yet allowing the forward element to stand out just a little bit better. The arrangement of the bales and overall composition works well too.

Colors look good too with the warmth of the land/hill/bales against the cool tones of the clouds.

Welcome and we look forward to your images and participation.

Lon

The hay bales here in Eastern Washington (very dry here) are usually not covered like they are on the west side of the Cascades. There it is not uncommon to see white or light blue coverings. I assume the wonderful reflected color in your very nice photo comes from covers that are bronze in color.(?) I initially thought a substantial crop from the top to further emphasize the bales would be appropriate but not quite sold on that.

It looks like hay bales on fire. Crazy looking image in a good way. DOF works for me as presented.

Thank you @Lon_Overacker Lon!

These hay bales were being harvested on a farm where we stayed overnight in Iceland. Unable to sleep due to jet lag + the 24 hour daylight, I got out of bed around 4 for when the sun rises back above the horizon (from the west). Because the hay is being harvested for winter food stores for the animals, it is immediately wrapped in black plastic. For some reason, they were left in the field overnight and I caught the perfect mix of overcast skies in the east with clear light behind me, in the west.

Thank you for your feedback and I’m excited to be part of the NPN!

@Jim_Gavin ,

Exactly! These covers were actually black.

I like that idea of the crop. Normally I try to keep my images from this camera at 6x6, even if I do crop it a bit, so I didn’t think of that. But I will try out more of a panoramic view in Lightroom and see how it looks.

Thank you!

@Harley_Goldman

Thank you for the kind words, and the feedback. I’m glad you like it!

Jack

Welcome to NPN, Jack. The DOF is fine with me as the BG objects are sharp enough and places the emphasis on that FG bale. The warm light from the sun has made the bales appear to be on fire and given them a unique look. My personal preference would be to crop about 1/3 of the sky to just above the uppermost cloud on the right which has the bit of warm color. I look forward to your participation. BTW, I remember shooting with Ektar print film. I did not know that it was still being produced.

Thanks for the feedback, Ed. You’re the second person to recommend a similar crop, and it does seem like a really interesting change. I’m going to have to think on it for a while, bit I think a slight wider view of the scene can really add a lot; I definitely like it.

And yes, Kodak is still alive and kicking with their film development! Ektar is certainly one of my favorites.