This image was captured very near the “Intuition” image that I posted a couple of weeks ago. An area of oak, manzanita and pine flanking the Merced River just outside the border of Yosemite NP. As I’ve mentioned previously, the 3-day trip was pretty much wet and drizzle the whole time, never seeing the sun. Which was fine by me! With eveything wet and dewy-like I came across this pine tree with very fine drops covering it’s bows - almost as if they tree had been misted. The water glistened from what light there was. I played around with a few movements and this was one of the better ones.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
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
Curious as to your general feedback and impressions you might have. This is probably at least a 50% crop and also rotated 90deg from a horizontal original orientation. I have a much wilder version where I pushed the colors and saturation to the point where the cyan colored needles turned almost neon. But then the whole thing was just too much, so I’m going with a more mild processing version.
As always, your comments welcome and appreciated!
Technical Details
Nikon D800E, 28-300mm @160mm f/9 1/6th sec. ICM horizontal movement (then image rotated)
Lon, reading thru the info it sounds like you had taken this as a horizontal and converted to a vertical for the final presentation. To be honest my immediate impression was or is best for me as a vertical. So, with that said the overall scene is wonderful as it is presented. It has a very peaceful feeling and mood to the image.
No thoughts for change at all…
That is very nice Lon. Sometimes a photo like this with a repeating pattern can have something out of place and it will bother me, but these all line up really well. The different shades of green also really work for me.
Wonderfully creative image Lon! Very pleasing to view with a balanced composition and exposure. The slight movement in the “grass” works well. I really don’t have any corrections to offer. Awesome work!
The large view is incredible–lots of subtle colors and shapes. I really have no nits for you as I like this abstract view of a small piece of Yosemite…Jim
Lon, even though this image needs no explanation, it was interesting to find out how you got there. This is not a very obvious photograph, and even though you said, you “played around with a few movements and this was one of the better ones.”, many photographers wouldn’t be able to pull this off. I also first thought this was grass and even though your information was interesting I don’t really need to know what it is. The mood in this image is incredible. The blur, the pattern, the lines, the colors and the gradations - everything contributes to a mood, which in my opinion is one of the most important aspects in a good photograph. I agree with @Paul_Breitkreuz , that the main emotion I get from this is peace of mind. I could literally feel the drizzle and hear the drops fall onto the damp ground. I like the crop (almost square) and I can’t think of anything that would make this photograph better other than a nice frame. You nailed it.
Lon, without reading your description, this looked like a great, emotional take on a grassy field waving in the warm sun. I’m quite surprised that these are pine needles. The variety of shades in the greens/blues of the needles is excellent.
