I just returned from a camping trip in the Mammoth Lakes area in the Eastern Sierra. It was a successful trip for photography, and I returned with quite a few images that I really like, including a few intimate compositions, like this one, that I captured handheld as I walked around Twin Lakes.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Dustin, I am a big fan of ice abstracts and shoot a lot of them myself. what I enjoy a lot about them is that nature provides an almost infinite number of designs in the ice, many of which can be quite artistic. Many ice abstract images emphasize the bubbles in the ice. This image is a little more unusual because the visual interest is primarily from shapes in the dark, clear ice instead. I love the radiating dark lines in the LLC. Quite an interesting image you have here.
My only suggestion for a tweak would be to burn down the white snow along the top and right edges. The brightness of the snow competes for attention with the ice design.
@Ed_McGuirk, thanks for the feedback! I hadn’t even considered the snow as a distraction until you mentioned it. I’ll have to give that a go to see how it works out. The dark lines in the LLC are definitely what caught my attention here. It was the detail that made me stop and photograph it.
I’m curious as to what is it that attracted you to this composition. I don’t mean to be rude. I would just like to hear what it is about this that you found interesting. It’s not an obviously beautiful image so it must’ve been something else. It is definitely not a cliche image.
That’s a good question, Igor. The first thing that caught my eye was cracking pattern radiating out from the lower portion. It was also the odd shapped hole, and the way the snow was parted around it. I was walking around with my camera handheld, and I tend to photograph anything that makes me stop and look when I’m doing that.
Here is another alternative crop that places more emphasis on the elements that attracted you in the first place. I added a strong vignette to deal with the snow along the edges too.
Thanks for taking the time to do that @Ed_McGuirk. I do like the square crop, although I’m not sure how I feel about the top section being cut off. The darker snow in the upper right definitely looks better that way, though.
