Rock in a Garden

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
1

Rock in a Garden
Rock in a Garden1500×1500 1.22 MB

I was wandering around Tohono Chul Botanical Garden in Tucson make plant photos, and stumbled on this rock, which was a little out of place, and with a path around it, I had to shoot tight and leave out most of the plants. It was unusually cloudy with drizzle, so everything in the garden had a damp feel. I like how the earthy tones in the rock complement the greens.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

For me this has a certain amount of depth, mainly from clues from overlapping objects, but this is very diagonal from bottom left to top right. And the bottom left to top right is conceptually a positive and negative space of sorts. There was no other way to shoot it given the man made stuff, but putting that aside, what do you think of the composition would might be better if I could manipulate the scene?

Technical Details

1/15s at f/18, ISO 400, 43mm hand held

2

Hi Michael, this is a very attractive image and I found it fun to explore when enlarged. I love rocks and this one is particularly handsome with all of its varied hues. The plants surrounding it provide some softness against the hard stone, and make a nice supporting cast. Yes, it is a “tight” shot but you needed to exclude other stuff and you do have some DOF with plants in the distance (upper right). Looks to me like you caught the rock’s “best side”.

3

Michael, I like the mix of “hard” and “soft”, with the big rock surrounded by a nice collection of plants in a variety of shapes and shades of green. The rock also has a good variety of shapes and colors. I find myself wanting a bit more something at the bottom as the rock’s shape feels somewhat vertical and the bottom feels cut off, but understand that you had constraints.

4

I have tree shots here and there where the bottom is cropped because it is messy, sometimes I like it, sometimes not. Without more pixels, trying more bottom will have to be next trip.

I appreciate the feedback.