Another from my recent Sierra backcountry excursion. I came upon this scene just as the light started to get nice and after fiddling with framing from the edge of a snow drift adjacent to this small lake, I realized the best compositions required getting in the pool. I ended up wading in this ice water for 40 minutes in my hiking boots. It was not that bad but in the morning my boots and socks that were left out to dry were frozen solid. Needless to say getting suited up for the sunrise shoot was less pleasant.
Another beauty from the High Sierra! Although this doesn’t have the dramatic light like your previous image, I think I like the composition better. The near/far comp feels a little better balanced between the icy water, mountain and sky/clouds.
Colors are beautiful - less dramatic, but beautiful still!
Minor for me is the full vertical format. Problem I have is that I like all parts of the frame and cropping the top is not an option - I would want to retain the patches of blue along the upper edge. then it hit me - why not shrink the sky? I’ve suggested a few times in expanding canvas to add space to a tight frame. So why not shrink it. I took a marquee selection of the sky from just above the mountain to the top and then transformed with scale selection and just shrunk the sky a very little bit, to near say a 5x7 crop. A very minor transformation - but perhaps major in some eyes. I’m more comfortable transforming a sky, clouds or say sand on a beach - I’ll draw the line at the mountain…
You are hard core wading in this for 40 minutes, or even 40 seconds. It must have been a real good time putting them on in the morning. I quite like the image. No suggestions from me, looks great as is.
This looks like a winner to me, Dave. A really impressive foreground leading into your usual excellent background. I also really appreciate the inverted cloud (with respect to the mountain). I think that really works well here.
One minor suggestion. The snow in the lrc is fairly monotoned. Perhaps add a bit of contrast in the color.
Very nice scene and beautifully presented. My only thought is to clone out the red little leaf stem (or whatever it is) hanging off the ice in the lower left corner.
Processing is spot on and I like the composition, Dave, and I like your bravery wading into that water. We crossed a few streams on our trip a few weeks ago and boy it was cold. I do not want to imagine how it felt like inside this water for 40 minutes. My only suggestion is to rotate this CW by a few degrees. It’s probably leveled but it feels a little tilted because of the snow mass on the right hand side.
Dave, yet another great High Sierra image, and kudos for what you had to do to get it
The only thing I might try here is a crop off the bottom, to just above that smallest chunk of ice just right of center. I think that cleans things up just a bit.
Really great work. I love seeing your Sierra images, it takes me to one of my most favorite places, and one that I don’t get to nearly enough. Thanks!
The light and color in this are beautiful. The snow features make for a captivating foreground subject and I like how you have used them both as leading lines and for framing the reflection of the mountain. Great work!
@Lon_Overacker, this is an unusual, but interesting idea. If you still have this rework hanging around, it might be valuable to post that rework here so that everyone reading this thread can see an illustration of this concept in action.
Dave, this image is gorgeous, I like this one better than your prior post, that is one killer foreground. The light on the snow is just wonderful. This is one of those images that it is worth it having to de-frost frozen boots over a fire
I love everything about this image, with one exception. The open water to the left creates a small amount of negative space that subjectively to me, slightly unbalances the foreground. Moving to the right might have helped, but then you’d probably would have had frozen pants and jacket too, or you would have done this. I would not crop away from the left, because I like how the light is hitting the base of the mountain in that area. This gets into personal taste, ethics, etc. but you may want to consider warping the foreground to reduce that open water, perhaps something like this
This is a beauty, Dave. The light is gorgeous and I love the FG ice as it adds some nice depth to the scene. My hat is off to you for braving that cold water for 40 minutes. In the end you were rewarded with this superb image. The reflection also works well as do the warm toned clouds.
@Lon_Overacker, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have to learn the Marquee Tool! @Craig_Moreau, thanks, Craig. cropping from the bottom does seem to tighten up the foreground. @Ed_McGuirk, thanks for taking time to edit. The negative space was bothering me as well but I was too lazy to transform and then redo all the masking layers but I think what you did was a considerable improvement.
@Ed_McGuirk’s rework is really good. The best improvements, I think, come from changes in composition. A small change can make a big difference in impact.
