One of the good and bad things about working a location (to death?) is that you can take similar images over and over. So when I went to Ripley creek (my surrogate backyard) and found ice still on the creek bed with water washing over, I decided to see what I could do with it since it was different. The combination of melt, ice & snow was a bit unusual.
For this one I’m jammed against a tree down over the water and another that’s still up. The tripod was sort of straddled with one leg in the water. I was trying to go for the reflection on the far left and the additional triangles of snow/ice.
Then I lined up that bit of weed with the reflection of the other downed tree in the midground - another triangle. That downed tree and the bank of the far side make another triangle. It was crazy, but I kind of like it in a jangly way.
The water is naturally tannic (lots of hemlocks) and so normally is a deep amber or root-beer color so the light yellow of the ice was different and probably isn’t visible for long because of snow cover. So I went for it.
Specific Feedback Requested
Does it work or is it too much? Wide angle landscapes can be particularly difficult to pull off and I’m not 100% sure I have here. Suggestions welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 12-35mm f2/8 lens @ 12mm (24mm equiv.)
f/14 | 1.6 sec | ISO 400
Tripod w/2 sec shutter delay
Lr for lens correction, clarity, texture & contrast. Lowered exposure slightly and brought the highlights down considerably. Probably should have done a bracketed series, but it’s not in my set of habits so I spaced. Maybe next time. Ps to manage tonalities better w/TK6 masking.
Wide angles in a forest are hard to pull off, because they run the risk of introducing too much of the natural chaos of the forest environment. With that said, I think you did a pretty good job of structuring this composition, it feels balanced. I often encounter partially fallen trees in the forest that create diagonal lines, and when they are in the background, they sometimes end up being a distraction, so I try to avoid them. But you have done a good job of instead using the fallen trees to your advantage, you recognized the triangles created by the X shape, and you saw some repetition of triangle shapes in the foreground. So it turns what can be a negative into a positive. As presented, I find the weed in the LLC to be an edge distraction, I think you have enough of a triangle shape in the reflection that the weed isn’t needed, and would clone it away.
The other strong line that I like here is the stream. I could see another alternative treatment that puts more emphasis on the stream, without losing too much of the foreground repetition of triangle shapes. I think this makes both the stream and the X-shape of the fallen trees more prominent.
Thanks @Ed_McGuirk & @Ronald_Murphy - I’ll have a go at it later and see if I can shore it up some. I was of two minds about the weed there, but it’s not super important to the shot if you can see it works without it.
I think you did a good job considering the challenges presented. I definitely would remove the weed on the LLC and I think @Ed_McGuirk crop helps condense this down a bit. One nit, there is a yellow tipped stake in the ground next to the stump on the left side of the creek that I would remove.
