The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Just returned from Death Valley last week. I thought that Lake Manly was going to be the star of the show on this trip. Visions I had of the lake were not happening due to atmospheric conditions (wind and dust), so we headed south to the Ibex Dunes with the intent to return to the lake when conditions changed. I have had this image in my mind for a long time and this trip the conditions came together late one afternoon. In the morning when I scouted this location the winds were blasting sand across the dunes and hiding our footprints as we walked. Fortunately the winds died down in the afternoon although a faster shutter speed was needed to keep the blossoms from blurring. I returned the next morning. Winds were not as bad, but the afternoon light turned out to be the best. Plans to return to Lake Manly were canceled when I had to cut the trip short.
Specific Feedback
I cloned out some animal tracks that were distracting. I left some of the smaller ones in the image thinking that they are part of the desert story. Any thoughts?
Love this image Paul! The light is gorgeous and the composition is great, with the desert verbenas leading the eye to the wonderful shape of the sand dune and on to the blueish mountains in the distance. The only thing that might have made the composition even stronger is if you had also included the full shadow of the plant in the foreground. However, I can imagine that this was not possible given the leading lines. The ripples in the foreground also beautifully ‘fan out’ to both corners of the frame, and moving left or right probably would have disturbed that.
Animal tracks are part of any desert (or in my case: sand dune) scene. How disturbing they are is largely up to the maker, so I can relate to cloning out larger tracks that disturb this near-perfect composition. The smaller tracks are definitely not disturbing to me.
A great image that makes me want to travel to Death Valley immediately!
Thank you, Gerard, for your comments and critique. Whenever I am out photographing landscape the writings of Reverend William Gilpin who wrote extensively about the picturesque style of landscape painting come to mind. He would have put it something like this;
Nature is particularly good at producing colors and textures, but not necessarily so good at creating the perfect composition.
I reviewed all the other images. There were some clouds creating a hazy and flat light up until the moment of this capture. This is the moment the light “popped” creating the contrast and glow I was looking for while still illuminating the tops of the verbena in the background.
Good strong composition and nice lighting, the flowers are like stepping stones to get across the immaculate rippled sand patterns in order to reach the substantial dune beyond. Not that you would want to stand on those wee flower islands.
I think that this is very nice with the flowers making this image not what I generally imagine Death Valley being like. I mean that in a good way as someone that has never been there. Otherwise, your composition has a nice flow to it and I find myself jumping through the image from flower clump to flower clump. The only thing I would wish for would be a tiny bit more sky as I feel that that dune is a bit tight to the top edge.
