The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
We spent three night earlier this week near the Delaware coast, which was our first visit to any shore in many years. While it was too early for the migratory shore birds, the first signs of spring were showing in some of the shrubs and especially the maple tree. This is a look at the shoreline of a pond at the Prime Hood Wildlife Refuge, where there was a nice mix of early colors.
Specific Feedback
There are times and circumstances when I find the early spring colors to be nearly as good as the local fall colors, with this particular shore line showing off the early colors very well.
Technical Details
R5, 100 - 500 @ 135, 1/200 s, f/13, iso 800, tripod and polarizer
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Mark: A wonderful full spectrum scene nicely composed and captured. I especially like the color in the water. Perhaps a little less sky but overall a very nice image. >=))>
Hi Mark,
The understated early spring color in this scene is quite lovely. Over the last couple of years I too have begun to appreciate that delicate beauty of the emerging spring leaves. I could also see this working with a pano crop and no sky, a twofer if you will. How was your trip to the coast? I hope you have a few more to show us.
I agree about the rich color as spring vegetation begins to grow. We are just getting rolling here in the PNW, and driving around I’ve been “car composing” in my mind some of these very scenes. The Columbia River Gorge will soon start to come alive, and initially it will be more yellow, almost glowing, before turning the deeper greens; I hope I’m able to get out there for a few days.
I like the snippet you captured, and agree it has those nice, early and subtle, colors. I wonder how this would look with side-lighting? Were you also able to capture it in the more golden time of day?
Wonderful job capturing and showcasing the spring transition of colors - and I agree in my places, these colors are just as beautiful as autumn. In this case it’s not the colors that give that transition away, but the bare trees tell the story it’s not autumn, but early spring when new growth is not quite budding yet.
I quite like this as presented. My only thought/suggestion is about the bare tree on the left. It draws my eye more than anything else in the frame and I’m wondering if cropping out would work? I don’t think you lose any of the story being told. The only other small thing would be wanting a little bit more of the water at the bottom. It’s right on the border of wanting more, or none at all. Minor for sure
Hey @Mark_Seaver I had to study this one for a while because my initial reaction wasn’t favorable and then I figured out that the sky is what put me off. I tried cropping it out and suddenly the image came to life. Colors and processing is perfect, though. I’m such a fan of early spring foliage as it’s so fresh and colorful, as shown here.
What a great capture of a beautiful Spring scene, Mark. Even though it appears to be a cloudless day, the light does not appear to be too harsh. I love the fact that you get yellows, oranges and of course greens in your Spring. In southern California, we really just get green and not the other colors. Very interesting. I love it. Hard to tell the difference between Fall and Spring.
I am really starting to enjoy these all inclusive and relatively chaotic scenes I’ve been seeing more and more of here on NPN. These scenes tell a story much differently than than scenes with no clutter and I’m really appreciating that. You have a good base of trees that are still leafless intermixed with those shrubs/trees that are sprouting leaves of various colors and of course, the pine trees that are green. Wonderful mix of colors and your processing of them is spot on.
If you have it, I’d love to see more water to better balance the portion of the sky. And, as others have mentioned, doing something with that one tree on the left that is very bright and almost ramrod straight compared with the other trunks in the scene. I took it into LR and I burned it down quite a bit and this is what I came up with. I also tried cropping and it really threw the balance off quite a bit so for me that didn’t work.
Wonderful trip to the coast. Would love to see some more of what you got.
I really like the chaos in the image with all of the white/light lines of the trees and branches along with the various patches of colour. One can get really lost in all of that (in a good way) and spend quite a bit of time studying all of the details and intricacies. Unfortunately for me, the sky being a solid mass of colour pulls me away from all of that so I would for sure try cropping the image to exclude most if not all of it.
