Rowena Crest is a very special location in the eastern section of the Columbia River Gorge. In the spring, balsam root, lupine, and other wildflowers carpet the landscape. Catching a sunrise at that time of year, when the conditions are right, is a magical experience. It can be tricky to shoot there because of generally windy conditions and getting just the right amount of cloud cover. We were fortunate to enjoy great conditions that particular morning last year.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I intentionally emphasized the balsam root and lupine blooms in the foreground, with a sunstar in the background. As the sun hit the hills in the background, I started with a horizontal orientation, but then quickly shifted to a vertical comp. Iām not completely happy with the sky in the horizontal image, and the arrangement of the balsam root clump with respect to the sun in the vertical image, but I had to work fast while the sun was just cresting the hills in the background. All critiques welcome.
Technical Details
These images are a manual focus stack and exposure blend. Nikon Z7ii, Nikkor Z 14-24mm @14mm, f/16, ISO 500. The shutter speeds ranged between 1/640 to 1/20. Processed with ACR, Dxo Prime Raw 2, Topaz Sharpen AI, and blended in PS. I did a slight vignette.
I prefer the horizontal composition as well, even though it needed just a little bit more sky. The clarity in the image is wonderful and really draws me in and holds my attention.
Definitely the horizontal. The part of the vertical image above the flowers is far less interesting. In the vertical the flowers feel crowded at the bottom because the best is in the lower quarter of the frame. The horizontal is a wonderful image. Bravo.
Hi Patrick,
I also like the horizontal. It just brings in so much of the beauty of that area, plus I prefer the brighter/lighter green tones. I grew up in Portland and have never heard of this area! I wonder if it is near Crown Point. Time to go to a map!
Wonderful blending of the light! I also prefer the horizontal. I love the sky in the vertical but the flowers feel a bit crowded, and the angle of the river makes me feel the camera should be rotated a bit, although itās probably just an illusion. The horizontal composition brings in the distant horizon to show an apparently true horizon, although maybe it wasnāt pancake-flat.
This is one where Iād be inclined (ouch ā no pun intended) to rotate the camera a bit to make it feel right. (But that could be completely subjective.) Classic beauty in any case!
@Mark_Muller@Igor_Doncov@Youssef_Ismail@Jens_Ober@Mario_Cornacchione@Diane_Miller Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Wow, I guess Iāll have to consider making a big print of the horizontal version too. @Mark_Muller, Rowena Crest is also known as Tom McCall Preserve. Itās a few miles east of Mosier on Hwy 30. @Diane_Miller, the horizon is a little tricky here, but that last little bit of water to the right should be horizontal.
Patrick, this is awesome, count me in as one who prefers the horizontal. You had some nice conditions both weather and flowers.
I have a love/hate relationship with Rowena Crest. I rarely get good weather and the wind is often wicked. But occasionally things line up, like they have for. you. Oh, my last visit there I picked up a Tickā¦on my sternum no less. No idea how that happened.
I first looked at this on my Chromebook, which is not calibrated, and was really surprised that so many preferred the horizontal. Now that Iām looking on the better monitor though, I get it.
Wonderful image Patrick. Iām a sucker for a bouquet anchoring the foreground of a grand scene, and Rowena Crest is so conducive to that. One of my favorite images is a sun star from this location, but taken at the end of February when the Grass Widows bloom. Itās amazing how far the sun moves north in just a few months!
The color of the horizon, the clouds and the color of the sky is more appealing to me in the vertical and it seems like the sunlight is striking the Balsam Root a little stronger in the vertical.
Also, the framing of the river is still great in this orientation.
Thereās more of those lovely Balsam Root to look at in the horizontal and when viewed full screen, that makes it more appealing for me. Thereās also more Lupine in this one which is really nice.
I donāt see where youāre asking for opinions on a favorite so Iāll just say that I really like both orientations.
Did you use a sunburst filter or was this taken with a lens that has an odd number of aperture blades?
Iāll just say that I love both of these although Iāll be contrarian and pick the portrait as my favorite. Why? I think the landscape would be my favorite if it had more sky. It just feels too cut off at the top of the frame although I slightly prefer the foreground flower clump while also including some lupine.
The portrait view has a nice sun-star, a good foreground, a good view of the river, and of course the sky. I really like the nicely arranged flowers in the portrait particularly the four flower cluster that starts at the bottom of the frame and leads the eye right through to the background. They feel like theyāre talking to me while in the landscape version they appear to be looking away from my eye.
Either way, these are great looking shots (both of them) in what sounds like a challenging location to shoot.
Hey Patrick! Vertical definitely the way to go with this one. Compositionally, the horizontal one makes me feel stuck with little room to explore the photo. The vertical allows me to breathe easy without using my inhaler! Haha but in all seriousness this is a great shot.
@David_Haynes@David_Johnston , my preference is also for the vertical, mainly because of the sky and little more room around the wildflowers. I honestly donāt know why the sky is so different between the two, and the processing was very similar and the images were shot only about a minute apart from each other. Literally just flipped the L-bracket to vertical. In hindsight (always 20-20!). I should have moved a little farther back on the horizontal. Just gives me motivation to try again this spring!
Mr Parkin here (finally) ā¦ been a few issues at home so sorry for the delay.
Out of the two images, I overall prefer the verticalā¦ However, I also prefer the horizon of the horizontal and the sky (excluding the deep blue). The negative of the horizontal is the way all the point out of the frame - itās sort of āleaking energyā if you want a metaphor that works for meā¦ those dead corners donāt work well either (bottom left and right).
I played with a bit of ādistort/transformā on the landscape version and cropped a bit to try to exclude the far left flower and exclude the grassy corners to see what it looked likeā¦
The stack and processing is great and I agree that you might have included a little more at the top of the frame but it doesnāt bother me that much. I have a feeling that the centre of the picture is a little bright tooā¦ just played with it to see. Let me know what you thinkā¦
Tooting my horn a little bit. The vertical version of Rowena Sunrise recently won third place in the āNatureās Colorsā photo contest sponsored by Outdoor Photographer magazine.
