Ran into this idyllic valley exploring Crested Butte.
Specific Feedback Requested
Comp/Processing all comments appreciated…
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
107mm f/11 0.6sec iso 100
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Mario, you scored here. This is awesome. Love the colors and I certainly miss Colorado in the fall…well done, sir.
Well done, Mario. I’m not usually one for grand landscapes but this, in its diversity of colour, tone and line is a real treat for the eye.
This is a fine grand landscape. Colorado seems to be blessed with such autumn views. There is quite a bit of purple in those mountains. I might add a bit more contrast by bringing the darks down lower. Not much.
While beautiful and probably mesmerizing in real life, I struggle with landscapes like these. Both in the field and when I see someone else’s work. Is it conditioning? Over the decades I’ve been into photography I’ve had it repeated and repeated about leading lines and vectors into a photograph. I don’t see that here and I’m struggling with if it would make the cut if it were mine. Maybe it’s there and I can’t see it, but there’s no through line in this shot. No way to lead me to the various features and elements that so captured your imagination and time. Is it me? Is it a lifetime of the same compositional advice? There is beauty here, but…I can’t find a way in. The layers are there, the color, the textures, but…hm. This happens to me with many photos and I mostly just hold my tongue (or fingers as the case may be) and leave others to chime in with more positive opinions, but maybe we should have a dialog around expectations and conformity. Do the rules exist for a reason? Should we care?
Ok. I’ll shut up now. I like the idea of the grand landscape you have here, but wish for more organizing elements. It’s probably my linear brain just being cranky.
Very interesting image, Mario, what beautiful country and time of year to explore with a camera . You present lots of great elements: colors, textures, forms and spacing in the image. But @Kris_Smith comments resonate and strike a chord with me. I like the photo, but I feel a strong compositional in-balance between the foreground and background. And for me a “grand landscape image” needs to have these elements quietly working together and supporting the whole. The grassy upslope in the immediate foreground moves my eyes to the right out of the scene and I never get to those beautiful aspen trees. Maybe if more slope was presented I would be swept down into the image. Regarding the background, I feel a little cheated that the wonderful talus and scree slopes (great colors, dark tones and shapes here ) are pinched and cutoff, especially the cone off center to the left. Always a powerful section of any image. I’m thinking this background needs to provide a stronger framework to support the rolling woodlands. I think the rule of thirds if applied here: 1/3 rolling grassland Foreground; 1/3 woodland valley Mid ground; 1/3 Background slope, make this good image a stronger and more dynamic one., I love so many elements that you have captured here, they just seem to come up a little short as a whole .
I see many photo opportunities in the image for wide angle and telephoto lenses. From this point of view a wider angle would provide a more encompassing “grand landscape” image with a gentle sweeping foreground and a make for a more dynamic background. A longer telephoto would work for the background slope isolating the evergreen trees, colors and contours; also for some intimate studies of the aspen sitting on that lovely knoll. I think your processing is excellent throughout with wonderful color, details and great hyper-focus . I think you could do a nice panorama of this wooded valley too.
Thanks for all the comments @David_Bostock @Kerry_Gordon @Igor_Doncov @Kris_Smith @Stephen_Stanton . I appreciate the honest feedback and I see Kris and Stephen’s points. My processing intended to lead the eye from the ground foreground to the aspen clusters through a light green swath to the aspen patch on the mountain. I judiciously used radial filters and a brush. Seems it did not come through.
Your post raises very interesting questions about how we form an aesthetic both in terms of how we read and make art - what we come to accept as beautiful or compelling and the way rules can both guide and restrict us . I feel like the idea of leading lines is one of those “rules” that can ultimately be very limiting. I accept that it is a rule for a reason but what if I don’t want to draw you into the photograph but rather have you engage a field of experience. That field might be abstract or built of relatable objects that now might, for example, be presented in a more two dimensional way that is more about juxtaposition than entry. I would recommend looking at the work of photographer Ned Pratt, especially his book “Ned Pratt: One Wave”. Many of the photographs in that book have nothing to do with leading lines or vectors. Often they are planes that seem to be layered one atop the other of say, grass, a fence and sky. And it is the juxtaposition of the planes that make the photographs so compelling. When I saw his work it really opened up new possibilities for me in how I might see the world and the kind of photographs I might include and the kind of experiences I might share. That isn’t to say that I no longer consider leading lines but to the extent that I want to make more than pretty pictures (and there is nothing wrong with that, by the way) I want to give myself permission to deconstruct a rule bound narrative about what is possible. How many times have I seen, have I myself made, pictures that are compositionally “flawless” and yet seem, to me at least, to add nothing to my experience. I’m not sure how I am to go about “digging down” and getting below the surface of things. It isn’t by simply by turning my back on “the rules”. But I want to investigate for myself where those rules may be applicable to my intention and where they might actually inhibit it. Quick thoughts. Thanks to you Kris, for taking the risk and authentically sharing.
3 Likes
Very interesting convos going on here. Leading lines or not I think this is a beautifully seen and composed image. I immediately was drawn from the closer yellow aspens and then saw the ones further away and thought it was so neat how they repeated through the landscape with green in between. And obviously the mountains are grand!
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Mario, this is an excellent view of this colorful valley. I especially like how the ridge at the back makes a strong textural contrast with the trees in the valley. While this looks great as presented, I think that a bit of dodging in the right third would provide more balanced viewing of the entire frame.
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This image works for me Mario. From my perspective, I view it as more of an “extraction” than a classic grand landscape. You might say this is an “intimate” grand landscape 
I appreciate it as an image that is primarily about layers of colors and textures. At that level, it works for me.
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I’d enjoy a Discussion about this.
I love this expression, Kerry.
Mario, you’ve kicked up a hornet’s-nest of dialogue with your beautiful image. All friendly hornets, for sure!
I just want to say that your image is gorgeous. It seems like a painting to me.
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I love the image, Mario. A wonderful scene and I like it a lot, the way you captured it.
And you sure started a discussion! Very interesting.
I’ll try to add my small thoughts and hope that I can explain what I mean. After all, English is not my native language.
I am rarely looking for “the image in the scene”, small or grand. I am not a photographer, I stroll around and I photograph scenes that touch me somehow. I can deliberately search for a “strong” image, and maybe make an image by capturing and processing that pleases a number of people, but if the scene didn’t touch me in the first place I will forget that I made it within a few weeks.
Your scene would have moved me certainly. If I happen to find myself in such a lucky position, I will try to find out what exactly it is, that touches me in this scene. Usually, there is a lot to see, but some elements can’t be missed and others can better be left out. Sometimes there are lines/layers/planes to guide the eye, and if I notice them I’ll try to use them because I’ll like the image better then. And they’ll make the image stronger in the eyes of others. Sometimes there aren’t such elements. But I will always capture the scene anyway. And probably remember it forever. If someone else doesn’t like that image because the composition isn’t according the rules, so what? I can probably agree about his or her arguments, but that doesn’t affect my feelings about the result.
So, learn from the comments and the images of other people (that’s why this is such a great community), use their experience/eyes/verdict to reflect, and never forget that YOU are the one that decides whether you like your image or not. No matter what the rules are.
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Hey Mark,
I surrender the expression to the public domain. Use it relentlessly and help spread the word 
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Rules are welcome. They just shouldn’t be called that. Artists are an independent group of people who buck conformity.
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I’m late to the party. My feeling this is a beautiful image with a wonderfully muted fall colors. I played around with the cropping and wonder what you think about a little tighter image.
Thanks for the rework John. I actually really like this condensed version. Much stronger.