What makes this image expressive?
Rivers are my favourite subject area and this particular stream is special to me. When I came upon the scene, after taking time, I came to see an hourglass , with the leaves falling from the trees above, running through the waterfall/bottleneck to the lower part, where they swirl before eventually disappearing downriver. I took up photography only six years ago as a late-blooming amateur. Now 74 years of age, this photo a metaphor for a life that is running away too fast !
Specific Feedback Requested
Looking for any feedback on composition and self-expression.
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Thank you for your image, my first impressions are it is quite joyful, playful almost. The vibrant fall colours up top, the energetic water cascading down and then the leaves sloshing around in the foreground. These are first impressions before I read your text.
This is always a litmus test when I review images, how does my reading of the scene, which in many ways reflects who I am at the moment, correspond to what your intent is, which of course, is more representative of your values, beliefs and perspectives.
Now, my somewhat optimistic and joyful reading contrasts quite a bit with a more melancholic, time running away metaphor. This is interesting and why we should always make images that speak to us and for us. We are the person our images affects the most, we lived it, we experienced it and we expressed it. They are ours (I sound like Smeagol in Lord of the Rings!!)
One thing that springs to my mind when you mention an hourglass is how beautifully symmetrical they are, whereas the image as shown here isn’t quite, so let’s look at the impact of that. The vertical line through the centre all works; fall colour, waterfall, whirlpool. The issues that are not symmetrical are the rocks faces on either side. There are various ways of addressing those. The following are just non-standard aspect ratio screen grabs. We could eliminate the right side cliff all together
Or, crop it a bit to balance it more with the left side weight.
Aspect ratio has a very strong impact on how we feel an image, perhaps even a vertical here could have worked to force the read from top to bottom.
A complex scene and a beautiful metaphor. I’ve enjoyed spending time with it, thank you for posting.
Thank you for taking the time, sieur Alister (from French Canada). Your comments make me realize that perhaps I have internalized “rules” and thought this composition was more dynamic with the horizontal inverted U from top to bottom. Also, when I flipped the photo horizontally, I felt the rock wall was too dominant; question is that I left the right side one with too much space. In any case, I find that your cropping suggestions do keep the sloshing leaves in the picture, which is important for the intent, but make it more balanced and coherent with the idea of the hourglass. Will work on it more. Thank you again and looking forward to reading your book. Salutations distinguées! Claude
