Red Clouds, Blue Moon

All I can say is that we are lucky to be photographers and seek out those moments of beauty and peace that make life worth living. I take an expressive-impressive approach to my work rather than a journalistic one, wanting to create a window or doorway that one would like to step into.

Specific Feedback Requested

I am interested in anything anyone has to say about this photo. I must say I love it, but it is my baby so I’m prejudiced. I want to know if it resonates with some, or not. How does this photo feel? Do you want to go there? Is it a picture of the crack in the Earth [Carlos Castaneda]?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: Yes

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In addition to being visually compelling, it speaks to me about the many ways we perceive time. Fleeting as in the cloud layer. Imperceptible as in the rock formations that we only see in their current and long affected state. And from the long past as in the starlight we can see that was generated many millions of years ago. Really creative and beautiful.

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A wonderfully creative work. I like the design of this work. I would probably not have included the moon and just had the star maybe. I don’t have enough experience in such creations. I do like the overall darkness and the dark colors and shapes.

I love the very impressive opposite colors and the contrast in the atmosphere, warm and cold. In my personal opinion it is the star rather thant the moon that disturbs the atmosphere. Whay do you think about a higher image that let see a bit more of the shapes of the trees? A personal beautiful photo for me.

Technically it looks pretty nice in the large view. Smooth transitions in pretty abrupt color changes.
Nice work.

What luscious color! I love the moon and the star, above and below the clouds. The dark mountains at the bottom feel like a fairy-tale land.

To all who replied… thank you very much for the comments and good words.

Richard, I’m a little late, but just wanted to add my appreciation for your beautiful image.
I love the colors. I also like the sparse elements, the trees, moon, and star/planet ((Venus maybe?). But most of all I like the reddish horizontal swirling cloud lines that distinguishes the vastness of space from the immediacy of earth. I see eternal time here. It is very beautiful!

I really like how this image makes you have to interpret what you are seeing. There is just a tiny little bit of the moon, a tiny little bit of the stars, and a tiny little bit of the foreground rocky peaks. You have to really dive into this image to see those components and blowing this up large on the screen is a must. The warm and cool color contrast is super nice and the break in the clouds down low and up top, lets just enough of the stars and the moon peak through to entice the viewer to look more deeply. Very well conceived and put together.

My comment is late, but… wow! What a picture. Splendid. Yes, it does speak to me. Certainly the colors, and the atmosphere, and the contrast between the ancient rocks, the even more ancient star and moon, and the passing clouds. But, even more, there is a point that captured me: the fact that the moon “looks away” from the star, towards the edge of the frame. It took me some time to realize it, but this creates a sort of movement towards the “outside”. Very Magrittian, I have to say. And yes, Castaneda is appropriate here…

I used to love punchy and ‘wow’ colors back in the halcyon HDR days, then I grew tired quickly of oversaturation and favored subtle transitions. But I’ve been warming up to bold colors, especially when the artist wants to create a doorway, so to speak. Does this resonate? Yes!

My only quibble are the patches of magenta to the left and above the star – the transitions are abrupt and don’t seem to flow as nicely as the bottom colors.

Thanks for sharing work and vision, Richard :smiley: