This image is from a recent February trip to Acadia Park that was light on snow, but an ice storm, plenty of rain and cold winds created some interesting opportunities for intimate scenes. This lichen, ice and pink granite called to me on this dreary overcast evening. @Ed_McGuirk and I spent a week giving it our best on the icy roads, cliffs, and trails in a pleasantly empty Park. Thanks again to Ed for his knowledge of the Park and the huge tip to bring crampons for the abundant ice. They were an absolute necessity!
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Single exposure, F16, 1/4sec, ISO200, 33mm equiv.
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A fine abstract composition, Alan, with the pastel-like blues and yellows very striking against the textures of the granite. The perspective is perfect !
Alan, this was a nice bit of seeing on your part to extract this image from the cliff. The color of the lichen was an obvious attraction, but what sets this image apart for me is the careful attention to the shapes in the composition. Triangles are very powerful shapes, and I love the triangle of light green lichen the left. Add that triangle to all the other strong diagonal lines here, and you have a lot of interesting elements here beyond the colorful lichen. For what was a miserable rainy afternoon, you came away with something really worthwhile
I would suggest a few subtle tweaks to take this image up a notch. I would add a strong vignette to the frame edges to place more emphasis on the center of the image. I am also a bit nit-picky about cloning away minor distractions and hotspots. If this were mine, I would clone away everything that I have circled in in red in this re-post. This is really minor stuff, but makes a difference.
Thanks so much @Ian_Wolfenden and @Ed_McGuirk for stopping by and offering comments. Ian, I am glad you commented on the perspective. I spent a lot of time studying this arrangement and liked this one the best.
Ed, thanks as always for the nit picks, they do help. I did go back and forth on the strength of the vignette and will revisit your suggestion. It was a miserable afternoon but this image made it better.
Alan,
This turned out really well for less than ideal weather conditions. The arrangement of shapes and lines; particularly the triangular shape toward the bottom left; work beautifully together and help direct the eye around this intimate scene that you captured. I also like the color palette with the lichen covered pink Acadia granite and the two frozen pools of water. I think @Ed_McGuirk’s small tweaks have elevated this lovely image another notch. Glad you were able to hang in there.
This is beautiful and has a lot of energy, from all those diagonal lines and triangles. The colors are otherworldly (in a good way). Those little bits that Ed clones out didn’t catch my eye so much. What is a bit distracting is the dark crevice in the ULC. Perhaps a bit of dodging there (just the yellows, maybe) to bring the luminosity up would make it less visually massive. At any rate, this is gorgeous.
Alan, this is a fine view with an outstanding collection of shapes, colors and textures. While the two blue bits in the upper right corner are minor distractions, everything else hangs together beautifully.
Bonnie, the colors in this very flat lighting are quite striking and these are very much as they appeared to my eyes. Definitely otherworldly compared to my native surroundings. I will revisit the ULC as you suggested.
I am extremely pleased with the limited color palette here, Alan. The image is basically composed of three colors and three is a very good number. The triangles in the image seems to reinforce that, too. Everything is cohesive here although I can see this being somewhat tightened from the left but I am slightly biased against 3:2 image in general.
Adhika,
Thanks for your comments, I also do not generally prefer the 3:2 format and cropped this image from the full original that I decided to post below. Upon revisiting the uncropped original I think I might like it cropped only from the left and leave the third ice pool in the upper right corner? Your thoughts?
I think the pool on the upper right adds unnecessary complications, Alan. The way I see it, there are three major “cyan” areas: the two pools and the lichen on the left. The extra ice pool on the UR breaks that pattern. I played with the crop a little bit, I am wondering if this is a good compromise?
Adhika,
Thanks for taking the time to rework. I like your crop and suspected that was what you originally intended but wanted to show the full scene. I agree the upper third pool does not add and therefore less is more!
Thanks again!
An enjoyable intimate Alan. I too like the mix of color the rock and lichen bring, and the ice is an interesting bit of contrast. I prefer the original crop, but then I’m often happy with 3:2.
