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
This is an in-camera double exposure.
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
The double exposure gives the impression of a lithography where the reeds provide structure to the mountain range in the background. I’m interested in the first impressions this image provokes, either positive or negative.
Specific Feedback
I am interested in all the following responses:
Aesthetic
Conceptual
Emotional
Technical
Cant stop looking at this image. Its got so much texture and overlay. There is a over wordly feeling about it - or I should say a below world and above world. I don’t how you have done this, but you have made a 3d image, from a 2d platform. Love it.
I like that Maria. When i clicked on the thumbnail i thought it was water and a cliff behind it. I spent some time trying to puzzle it out and finally figured out its a double exposure. The texture of the reeds and water is very interesting and i like how the white on the top makes for such a stark change in the image.
The sharp line truncating the reeds from the white space above is the part of the image that captures my eye and makes me search for an interpretation. Same for the horizontal marks in the “hills”. After a while, I got my eye un-stuck and appreciated the layers of reeds. But then my eye and mind got stuck on that jagged line. I did not emerge a fan of the image.
Now to see your comments …
Odd, but I get a 2d effect. For me, the hills add some depth to the image if they are darkened.
Thank you, Loretta, for your comment. The double exposure for me creates an image that goes beyond representation and is more akin to a lithography, or a drawing. The waves in the foreground do give dimension to the image that otherwise is pretty flat. It was fun to explore a different way to interpret this landscape and I’m glad you like it.
Thank you, Cameron, yes, I see how it can be disorienting seeing this image at first. It is not a typical landscape shot and it is almost like it is pretending to be a photo. Nevertheless, I thought it was a new way to see the space that I had photographed a lot at this point. For me it was like asking myself what else can I do with this scene.
I would go as far as to say this is an exceptional image, worthy of exhibiting or entering for an artical in a magazine. Wouldn’t say competition as imo most judges lack appreciation of art.
I understand the double exposure, but don’t never remember hills like that? Did you do some filter work there to get the strata?
Thank you, Dick, for your candid opinion. It is interesting for me to see what other people find in my images. I agree with the two dimensional look of this photograph. In fact, as I mentioned in previous responses, this is more like a drawing than a photograph. A few days after I made this image,
I was introduced to an artist who depicts her land through lithography, and her way to render a similar landscape is very reminiscent of this image. I found this coincidence very interesting.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your comments and I’m curious to try your suggestion to darken the mountain range and see what it does to the image. By the way, when I first saw it on the computer, I tried to darken the sky, but I did not like the result, as I felt that the white background would fit better the whole context. I did not think of the mountain range though and I’m curious to find out what happens if I darken it.
It’s an interesting and uncomfortable image, Maria. The wiry shapes in the foreground unsettle me. Because of that I wouldn’t want to have it hanging on the wall. But it drew me in and kept me looking for quite a while. I’d consider that success.
Thank you Loretta for your appreciation. The hills were dark at dawn, and the structure is just the effect of superimposing the reed part of the image as a consequence of double exposure. I found your comment on most competition judges interesting
Thank you, Don, your reaction to this image is interesting. I approach photography with curiosity and in play mode, with no intent to be provocative. I see though how this particular image may come across as strange and unsettling. Thanks for sharing.
Very interesting. My first impression was of a landscape, with a watery foreground and mountainous background. I also have a similar reaction as Don, in that this has a lot of tension for me. It’s all the criss-crossing lines and especially those sharp horizontal lines cutting across the “mountains”. It’s a very well done in-camera ME.
Thank you, Bonnie, of all possible reactions, the one of tension associated with this image was the most unexpected one. I can see why, now that you mention it. For me it is fascinating to see that people read an image in very different ways… so, thank you for sharing yours.
A little late here, but this image intrigued and fascinated me since I first viewed this. Your comment above pretty much sums up the reactions to such an abstract as this - We all will have different reactions and “interpretations.”
My first reaction, what a wonderful combination of textures… a hint of reality, yet so much abstraction; keeping the viewer engaged with their imagination is a recipe for success. This is so cool and so very well executed.
Excellent job with the processing, b&w, contrast, etc. etc.
My biggest reservation has been mentioned already. The abstract nature and brilliant double exposure with the landscape and texture/detail… is just erased by such a clean masking of the sky/ridge tops. For me, it just looks like a “sky selection”. whether it was or wasn’t, that’s the impression. Without that ridgeline, I think the abstract nature of this goes up ten fold… But that’s just me, and another interpretation.
Hope you don’t mind, but cropping off the top, IMHO really elevates the abstract nature of this. It may not be your vision - and that is perfectly OK. I think without that clean delineation of the “sky”, the power of the abstract prevails.
Thank you very much, Lon, for your insightful reading of this image. I was bothered by the sky as well, but it did not occur to me to crop it off. I see what you mean about the dropped in sky and I appreciate the suggestion to remove it all together. Thanks also for the tip on categories, my choice tells also how I was not seeing this image as an abstract.
@MariaR I, too, have kept coming back to your wonderful photo. My first impression was that it reminded me of reflections of trellised apple trees. I really like it but felt something could be done to make it exceptional. The @Lon_Overacker edit provides that something. Very impressive image.
