As much as I enjoyed our two day trips to WV this year in June and October I still missed heading north to NH and ME. This particular image was taken during our last visit to NH in 2019. Rocky Gorge is a lovely little area located on the eastern end of the 34.5 mile Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains of NH. I would have liked to have had a little more time to explore the area as there is a pond up the trail , but it was getting a little late in the day. The Kanc as it is called is one of the most scenic drives in NH for leaf peepers in the autumn season.
As always I appreciate you taking a moment to leave a thought.
Specific Feedback Requested
All C&C welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D800, Nikon 35-70 @ 70mm, f16 @ 0.6 sec, ISO 800, CPL, cable release & tripod
Ed - I love the movement of the flowing water; instead of drawing my eye up through the image it feels like the image is coming to me - interesting effect. The only distraction I find is the brightness of the upper terrace stones on the left side. To my eye it seems to be off balance with the darker right side. You might play around with dropping the exposure in that region a little. Great image - thanks for sharing.
Ed, what a lovely scene. My only thought is to desaturate the yellow leaves on the top edge near center. It is cut off and seems to be an after thought. Desaturating it or cloning it off completely will help to make it less of an eye magnet
I’m a big fan of your colors. Of the group of New England photographers I like your colors as well as Dan Kearl’s. I think it’s their warmth that brings out the foliage so well. But the rocks come out well too. However, I prefer different compositions. In this case I would do a more intimate view of the falls rather than include top to bottom. The water coming in from the side of the frame is mildly distracting. I don’t think there is much to be done about it. You wanted the falls on the left and therefore had to include that plume of water. A compromise.
This looks really good, Ed. I quite like the composition. I would agree with Adhika about the leaves on the top edge right of center and would add the leaves on the right edge. I would also either burn or clone out the slice of rock on the right edge just below center. Compositionally, I would not change a thing.
Beautiful scene. I like the feeling that the water is rushing towards us. The URC feels too dark to me, though. That red tree touching the edge of the frame in the ULC is carrying a lot of weight, mainly because of its color. The dark, subdued colors in the URC don’t balance it. I think maybe lightening the green bush atop the right-hand cliff would provide more balance.
I like the composition here too Ed. I like it’s emphasis on the falls rather than the foliage. Many of the other shots I’ve seen of this falls show a wider view to include the mountain in the background, (which you chose to exclude here). Your composition distills the image down to just the falls and gorge itself. And this is a particularly pretty level of water flow, which justifies emphasizing the falls. Nice work on this one Ed.
This may sound kind of heretical, but I would suggest decreasing saturation in both the orange tree and the yellow one at the top, which would call even more attention to the falls. And I think @Bonnie_Lampley is onto something with brightening the greens in the URC.
Nice capture of the falls and autumn foliage. The upper right seems little too dark and perhaps could benefit from lightening the greens. The foliage colors may be too strong and drawing the eyes away from the falls. Image would probably also work well if split into two images, upper and lower halves.
This is gorgeous. Can’t argue about the yellow leaves up top, but otherwise this is simply wonderful. What I’m especially impressed with is the clean whites of the falls; yeah, some don’t like the silk (I do in most situations), but falls really take center stage for me. So much so, and other than mitigating the yellow up top, I might even suggest some slight vignetting.
I’m definitely a sucker for moving water, rocks and fall color.
I really like your concept, capture and processing.
It would shine as a big metal print on your wall.
2 thumbs up from me!
