Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Here’s a more colorful look at Grand Prismatic Spring. One of my favorite things to try is to get the colors in the water reflected in the mist. On this morning there were some good reflected colors at a distance that wouldn’t have allowed an intimate view, but they were much harder to see once I got close. Here, you can see some colors in the mist, but they are quite mild.
Specific Feedback
While the colors reflected in the mist are mild, I do like the overall color shift from bottom to top and the changes in texture.
Technical Details
R5, 100-500 @ 167, 1/200 s, f/16, iso 800, tripod.
This is really nice, Mark. I like the inclusion of the terraces which help anchor the image. The color looks great and I do see a hint of it in the steam. My only nit is that dark stone. It grabs my eye.
Nicely done!
-P
Mark, please tell me this is the postcard from your recent extraterrestrial excursion, because no terrestrial location has any business looking this otherworldly. If this is in fact Mars, I have many questions about your travel agent, the layover situation, and whether the in flight meal was reasonable. If it is the Grand Prismatic, then I withdraw the questions and replace them with quiet admiration, because the colors here look like a watercolor painter ran out of restraint and decided to just empty the whole palette onto the page.
The image is genuinely beautiful. That horizon line where the warm coral foreground gives way to the cool lavender water has the soft glow of a planet in its earliest morning, with a faint pastel sky hovering above as though even the atmosphere is uncertain what season to commit to. The dark mineral lines snaking across the lower half of the frame add a wonderful graphic counterpoint to all that softness, turning the foreground into something between a topographic map and an abstract painting. The eye flows along those dark rivulets, gets pulled up across the band of orange microbial mats, and finally settles on that small distant lump that may or may not be a rock, a bison, or possibly a tourist who has wandered dangerously off the boardwalk.
The mood is otherworldly precisely because the elements look so unhurried. There is no drama in the sky, no theatrical light. Just heat haze, soft pastel layering, and the quiet drama of mineral chemistry doing what it has been doing for millennia. The restraint is what sells it. A more saturated treatment would have pushed this into postcard territory. As it stands, it feels almost contemplative, like a planet sighing.
So out of curiosity, was it Wyoming, or was the rocket worth it after all. Either way, a lovely capture, and thank you for sharing the souvenir.
1 Like
Sebastien, your writing is truly very special, not only for this photo but also others that you commented upon recently, including my own images.
Honestly, you have set a very high bar for image critiques here at NPN.
Thank you!
-P
Beautiful abstract with a wonderful combination of line, texture, and color. Without the title and removing the dark rock in the water, it could be interpreted in any number of ways as there would be no indication of what if is, size, location, etc. Very nicely done. The only time I was there, it was getting dark and beginning to rain. I was immensely disappointed. I’m glad you had good conditions.
Mark,
What a wonderful, natural abstract. My first impression was that of the color gradient one witnesses at dusk and dawn. The colors are beautiful. Like Prestion, I like the terraces at the bottom anchoring the scene, which makes it a bit less abstract - but that’s quite all right! I also agree with the small rock, but that’s very minor.
I do think you’ve succeeded nicely in getting the colors present in the rising steam. Very cool!
My only small nit is the line of the terrace at the very bottom. Slightly out of focus; however not an issue as an abstract really, more if one is studying as a landscape.
Mark,
The Grand Prismatic Spring was the bane of my time when I visited Yellowstone. It is so hard to capture what that geological feature is in terms of its size, its colors, its complexity and variety of both geological and biological features, not to mention the endless visual possibilities. I think you have managed to capture many of those features in just one photograph and in a manner that is both alluring and mysterious. I find the reflection of the color in the rising mist amazing and never thought that such an effect was even a thing. The only thing that gives me pause about this photo is that I remember the colors to be much more vivid, but that being said, the subtle colors have a pastel essence to them and that is nice, as it works well with the rising mist.
@Preston_Birdwell @sebastien-maloron @Chris_Baird @Lon_Overacker @Youssef_Ismail
Folks,
The colors are seem muted because I wanted this to be reasonably high key. Right now the majority of the pixels lie in the top half of the histogram. Darkening the mid-tones lets Adobe add considerable saturation, which in this case takes away from the dreamy, mysterious feeling. To my eyes, the colors look reasomable, with many of the photos of Grand Prismatic that I see online looking oversaturated. I chose to leave the black lump in as a visual surprise, so yes it does get a lot of attention, especially at first. Removing it works well also. Colors reflected in the mists are something that I’ve watched (and photographed) for many years, but still don’t know what makes them stronger or weaker, although I suspect that sun angle plays a role.
Thanks for commenting.
I love photos that are initially disorienting, but then settle in as your eye takes its time to appreciate them; this fits that perfectly.
I really have no nits, I think the color looks great (to be fair, I’ve never been to the Grand Prismatic Spring), and I love the little counterpoint the rock brings. Other than agreeing with @Lon_Overacker’s thought about that slight softness at the bottom, I have no nits. Your image makes me want to visit this location someday.
Splendid image Mark! I like the horizontal layering and the dichotomy of the upper and lower halves of the image. The soft colors on top and the sharper more graphic feel of the bottom. Very nicely composed!
