Part of a series of 12 images of standing waves composed on the Berens and Bloodvein Rivers last August. I love the muscularity of this one and how the chaos seems to emerge out of the ordered structure. I also love the colour and a tip of the hat to Tony Kuyper’s TK7 panel for helping me find it.
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“Chaos out of Order” now that’s something you don’t hear every day from landscape photographers. And yet, after studying the image for a while, it proves to be a very apt description for this image, but I say that in a good way. This image also looks to be processed sharper and crisper than many flowing water images. But again it works because it enhances the feeling of power and strength that you describe as masculinity. This creates an unorthodox wave image that has a lot of impact, I like the approach you have taken. And the colors you pulled out look great too.
While I think the image is very strong as presented, my personal taste would lead me to suggest a crop a little from the bottom, since I think it is the least interesting part of the image. I would also prefer to see a more symmetric composition, with equal space above and below the main wave, and a bottom crop would do this too.
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Perfect shape on this standing wave, reminds me of something I’d see breaking on a shallow reef rather than in a river. I like your processing on this and I think you nailed the shutter speed to create a very pleasing blur. The only minor nit I have would be to clone out the tiny water droplet streaks in the center that go against the flow of the wave. It’s very minor and I only noticed them when zoomed in.
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Kerry,
This is awesome! I’m fairly surprised you didn’t post earlier when you were going through some images from that long trip you went on. Sure glad you decided to come back and post some more.
The mention of muscle really describes this well as much of the emerging wave looks fibrous - like muscle anatomy.
Just love the colors, tones and contrasts. Outstanding capture.
Hope to see more!
Lon
Thanks for the feedback, Ed. For this image I pushed the clarity where the wave breaks and actually pulled it back to varying degrees for the rest of the image. I’m glad that works for you. I’m not that big on perfect symmetry plus I like this aspect ratio for this image, which is partly why I chose this particular composition.
Thanks, David. I’m impressed and pleased that you took the time to look that closely. I did clean up a bit of the wayward droplets but I really do like to keep that sort of photoshopping to a minimum. At a certain point I feel like - that’s the way water is, both ordered and chaotic.
Always appreciate your feedback, Lon. When I first got into photography three or four years ago, it was all about landscape photography. But in the last year, in particular, my interests have taken me pretty far afield. In this case, after I completed the twelve for this series, I got kind of lost in other work and, more or less, forgot about these. I’ll try and get to posting the rest of the series.
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I really like this. Flowing and yet not moving! You’re right, it does feel very solid and strong.
Super cool!
Thanks, @GennyK. The term I like to use for what is happening in a standing wave is, “dynamic invariance.”