Until yesterday I have only been at Joshua Tree National Park in the summer, with hot days and cool evenings. I’ve tried some landscapes but the scenes are always way too busy.
Yesterday I got up in the wee dark hours and made my way to the Park, arriving just after Sunrise, knowing there was a good chance for snow. I was really excited to find a light amount of snow at a higher elevation location, along with morning light and some cool clouds.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Composition: I don’t do landscapes very often. It was difficult to find compositions, and I’m wondering what you think about these. I spent a lot of time in LR working on framing each of these individual images, wondering about cropping in even tighter for each of them. But the clouds and sky lighting kept me from cropping in too much.
Triptych arrangement: I placed the bright orange image in the middle between the two darker blue images at each end, to balance things out. Also the left image and the right image have the primary subject on the left and right edges respectively, so I think that also helps balance. What do you think?
Technical Details
35mm and 23 mm, F/8 and f/11, ISO 100, and 1/125 second.
LR to crop and whiten the snow (from blue). PS to remove some edge distractions, and add a slight (+15) Orton effect.
You got some great conditions, Mark. I’d never know that you don’t do very much landscape photography because these are all well made Images. Joshua tree is difficult to shoot at because it is so busy but you certainly tamed the chaos well. I might be tempted to cool the white balance of the warm shot as it draws my attention and it feels too warm to me particularly next to those beautiful cool tone images but I also feel like the first and second image as similar in content (both having J Trees and the main subject) and could actually bookend this series with the third shot in the middle. Very cool Triptych.
Great idea for a triptych, Mark. I like the open feel of the landscape, the differing positions of Joshua trees in each, and the pastel morning colors. It’s interesting how snow helps simplify the landscape. One thought would be to crop the top of the third image slightly to remove the bright area of open sky, which pulls my eye away a bit from the main scene. I like your arrangement but also David’s suggestion would be worth considering. Nice images!
Mark, it looks like you got some great, unusual conditions for this little venture. The Triptych looks fantastic. I agree with @David_Haynes about cooling the warmer toned image to give them all some consistency. This is a great technique.
Thanks for your thoughts @David_Haynes and @David_Bostock ! I re-worked the original middle image by reducing the warmth overall and in the snow, and also reducing the warmth in the yellow/orange sunrise portion. I did 2 versions: keeping the now-cooled middle image in the same position, and also moving it to the far right. @Steve_Layman , I cloned some of the dark clouds at the top of the yucca image to reduce that brightness, but kept the same crop.
I’m not sure which I like best, but all your comments have been helpful!
An excellent triptych, Mark. Version 3 nails it for me both in terms of tonal balance and the order in which you’ve framed them. I know this part of the world well, having spent more than fifteen years living the Southwest. These images evoke a profound sense of the peaceful isolation and that special mystical magic that is unique to the Southwestern desert. Very nice work indeed.
This is so nice! I think all of these images are great and they work so well together as a triptych – my favourite version is number 3 because to me it has the best “flow”. I think that you should be very have with this!
These are very nice, the third one seems to be the most appealing for me because of how it flows.
The atmospheric mood is awesome and they compliment each other very well, and, the subject matter is great!
I have in the past taken a series of shots intending to stitch them into a panorama but I got lazy and made a triptych instead, most people liked the results.
How cool to be there with snow!!! Initially I favored the second version, with the brighter area at the top of the right frame removed. But looking at all 3 above as I type, the last one also has appeal, with more sky in the two bookends. The frame on the right feels just a bit brighter – maybe darken it a bit or lighten the one on the left. to see about balance?
Thank you @David_Bostock , @Tom_Nevesely, @Merv for your comments. It seems the third version is preferred by most, and it is also growing on me a lot. @Kerry_Gordon, Thank you. It is truly a special place, and I’m glad this brought back some nice memories for you. @Diane_Miller, thank you too. The third one does grow in appeal, like it does for me! I can see how the right image could be darkened a bit.
