4 months separation. The first one is Monday, the other is this past December.
The Prairie river runs 40 miles from spring-fed lakes in Vilas county (I’m going to paddle those soon) and finishes behind the library in Merrill. It’s a tributary of the Wisconsin which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi. Anyway, my project this year is to explore and document this very wild and vital river.
I present two views from the same position. Here there are no trails so I bushwhack down. It’s so wild and overgrown that there are few places to set up. It’s also deep and fast-flowing so putting your tripod in isn’t a good idea a lot of the time.
I love it though. Wildlife abounds in and around it (I rescued a carp the other day and put it back in the river) and our DNR protects a lot of it from development & encroachment.
Specific Feedback Requested
So what do you think as a documentary approach? I’m not deliberately trying to duplicate my shots, but the vantage points are somewhat limited. And I think it’s kind of fun to view the same thing in different seasons.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Both shots with my Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 lens
Polarizers & ND filters (B+W brand)
Tripod
Lr processing for a natural white balance and to enhance the energy in the water or the drama in the ice.
They are both great shots, and I really enjoy being able to compare the serenity of the winter shot, especially with the longer exposure which calms the water movement considerably with the energy of the spring shot demonstrating more color and texture implying energy in the water. You really get a sense of the depth of the water as you mention as it is quite dark in the foreground. These images work wonderfully together and are a great example of how multiple images tell a story at times better than a single image.
Thanks Jim. Glad these work for you. The crop and ratios are different, but the scene is the same. I wish I’d gotten there in high flood just after ice out, but then again, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get to this spot since it was under water.
If the clouds move in early enough today I’m heading to the Prairie Dells - basically a large gorge with some rapids. Getting down the rocks is so much easier without the summer vegetation.
Kristen,
I agree with @Jim_McGovern comments as both of these tell a very different story, but both work very well standing alone.
My only nit is that in the spring version the shadows and black levels appear a little dark for my taste.
Given the shoreline it does look very challenging to find a nice composition as you have presented here.
I enjoy re-visiting the same location repeatedly, especially during different seasons. These are 2 somewhat different takes on the same place, so that’s part of the fun of doing it. I love the foreground in the second image, the shelf of ice creates a nice sense of depth. I think you may have gotten down to lower perspective in the second image. And I really like the look that creates, especially with the strong foreground you have. My only suggestion on the second image is to slightly burn down the top 1/3 of the image, to focus more attention on the bottom half with its strong foreground.
The first image does have some pretty dark water, which has a lot of visual weight. I also think the water at the bend could be darkened down. So I might try to better balance the water luminosity across the scene. I also think image #1 might look pretty good in B&W too.
Thanks Ed…I have two graduated filters in this - the tree line & the nearest water. Looks like I might need to adjust them a bit. Went too far with one and not far enough with the other. And yes, I think I was lower for the winter shot. And it sure does look good in monochrome, too. I did a couple other images from the December & January batches in B&W, but not from this latest session. Hm.
