The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
Photographed whilst driving by a pond with a lot of mist / fog yet to burn off. Not much of processing done
Feedback Requested
I’m wondering whether the mood or feeling I was aiming for comes through. Doe the house with its reflection add ? The pure naturalist may not think so. I am a natural photographer but i do think that the house provides a better sense of place
Technical Details
Image 1
Camera: NIKON Z 9
Lens: NIKKOR Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S
Focal length: 115mm
Shutter speed: 1/125s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 200
Image 2
Camera: NIKON Z 9
Lens: NIKKOR Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S
Focal length: 100mm
Shutter speed: 1/125s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 200
These are both lovely photographs. They both have fantastic color, crisp reflections, and that wonderfully moody fog. Without know exactly what you were aiming for, it’s hard to know whether you achieved it. To me, both images have a calm, peaceful vibe. The colors are warm, the water is smooth, and it feels like a perfect morning for a walk, paddle, or coffee on the porch.
As for which is better, that’s impossible for me to decide. They are so different. One strikes me as the stillness of nature during a season of change, and the other feels more living near beauty, or perhaps the end of a summer season (there are no boats or chairs on the lawn, which makes it feel like the end of something).
Karl - I think these are beautiful images and capture the soft morning mist and the fall colours so well. Re image 1, I do think mirror-images are super-hard to pull off. Any one aspect that isn’t mirrored seems to affect the precise balance. In my view, I think the mist on the water does impact that balance. I might try cropping a bit at the top so it’s not so symmetrical.
Re image 2, I personally don’t have a problem with buildings in landscape photos. I don’t know if you have the pixels to expand the crop but i might try including more scenery as a proportion of the image.
Anyway, they are both lovely images of the fall colours and mists, and convey a wonderful autumn feel and i like them very much.
Both images are beautiful, Karl. I feel quite calm, relaxed and at ease viewing them. Reminds me of Pearl Lake in NH and Beaver Dam Pond in Acadia, places Ed and I visit. I might crop a little off the top of the first just so it’s not 50/50. I find myself recently including man made objects in my photos, so I see nothing wrong with the inclusion. It’s off center and maybe on a third, which is good.Looks like a little frost on the roof waiting to be burned off.
Like others, I get a feeling of a peaceful autumn morning from both of these images, Karl. The house doesn’t bother me. The reflection version offered by @Doug_Wilson is intriguing, but doesn’t appear to be the image you were thinking of. If I had to choose, I think I’d prefer the one without the house, because it feels a bit more balanced.
Both images are really beautiful and provide a peaceful vibe for me. Since I’m not sure what mood or feeling you were going for it’s hard for me to tell you if you struck gold or not but I have the feeling that calm and peaceful vibe I get from this image may be what you were after so in that sense, I think you nailed it. I love the fog laying on top of the water breaking up the perfect reflection and for me, it works beautifully. I’m not one that needs a perfect, duplicate in a reflection image and the light ripples in the water and fog laying across mid portion of the water soften the image which makes it less harsh and more inviting and peaceful. That first image looks like a painting. You’ve got all of the fall colors going from green all the way through burnt siena.
As for your question on whether the house adds to the image…I love it! To me it tells even more of a story than the image without the house. It ground the scene. There’s not a lot going on with the house, no roads leading to it, no parking area, no car telling me that people are there, really nothing to tell me that anyone actually lives here, but it does tell a better story. Makes me wonder and contemplate. The first image is beautiful but I look at it and move on pretty quickly while the second image, because of the house, makes me linger a bit out of curiosity. I hope that makes sense. I may be along in my views here as well.
They are both beautiful images bursting with color and certainly convey Fall colors in a way that most photographers would want their own Fall color images conveyed. Well done. Which do you prefer?
Beautiful images, Karl! I love the colour and atmosphere in both of them. Personally, I prefer the second one. I feel the house gives the eye a nice focal point to rest on, and I think it helps tell a more complete story.
