Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
I would like to know anything you’d care to share around the mood of the photograph and feelings, memories, thoughts, or experiences that may be evoked for you. But I also have a question about how it reads for you outlined below.
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
I took this picture in the soft predawn light as I walked a path behind our campsite towards the forest where I’d planned to take some pictures. The path hugged the lake about three feet above the water. In the morning stillness, tufts of grass stood out in the water, and I thought “I ought to take a picture of that”. And I did but realized how bored I am of taking that same semi-abstract picture over and over. As I began to gather up my gear and continue on the path I saw this scene. My first thought was, it’s too messy, don’t bother, but gathering up my courage I made the picture anyway.
Technical Details
Specific Feedback
I am very much aware that complexity is just a stone’s throw from chaos. The question I have around this image is which of the two I’ve managed. There is a lot going on in this photograph, especially with the grasses and their myriad reflections. My hope is that there is enough structure to focus and contain the eye of the reader. There is the diagonal that goes from bottom-centre to left-centre. From there it moves across the frame following the grass from dark to light and from there, the light moves diagonally to the upper left. I imagine that the parallel diagonals contain the image so that the eye can roam about freely taking in the various details throughout the frame without getting utterly lost or overwhelmed. But then, is this just something I’m telling myself after the fact and that, really, the picture is running madly off in all directions? I know I like it a lot, but I’m patiently sympathetic (i.e., biased) and am used to reading it.
Critique Template
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2 Likes
I think it’s a very interesting image. I enjoy the grasses, the reflections and the stones underneath the water and don’t find it chaotic, everything seems to have its place.
I’m not sure about the bright area to the top right, my eye is obviously drawn towards it but that actually doesn’t bother me or take me out of the frame in this instance.
1 Like
I like it a lot, too! I’m easily bothered by chaos but don’t find this chaotic or too busy, possibly because of the very interesting underwater scene. The “busy” grasses are an extension of that and it gives them a base. Wonderful seeing and processing – I’m glad to enjoy a moment of peace along your shore!
1 Like
I, for one, really appreciate when a photographer is goind beyond the usual, the expected image. This type of image is almost always a composition of strands of reeds against a smooth surface of water. A sort of minimalist outlook. The fact that it’s different piques my interest and makes me want to explore.
Perhaps busyiness is relative because I don’t find this busy at all. Never since I first laid eyes on this image did I find it busy. Perhaps you mean that the lighter strands of reeds mess up the arrangement of the darker ones. Not at all - they make it more intriguing because they’re unexpected.
3 Likes
This makes me feel as if I’m becoming unbound, as if I’ve lost my bearings and am moving into the void.
It doesn’t feel chaotic or unstructured at all. The reeds are not going in every direction - they’re +/- vertical. Maybe that’s why I get the feeling of floating away - the reeds are pointing up into that bright space. It doesn’t seem complex to me either. Maybe because I’m so used to studying scenes like this.
1 Like
Sometimes I wonder if a better question to ask would be “What is your considered reaction?” instead of “What is your initial reaction?” As we’ve discussed in other threads, modern social media seems to be training us for quick glances and then moving on. As such, my immediate response was “Oh, I like that!” But, my slowed down and considered response is much more.
This is a symphony in a photograph, and as such the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. First, there are the two arching themes of the grass sweeping to the right as the darker stones and cloudless reflection sweeps to the left; a quodlibet to stick with the symphony allegory. This is accentuated by the details of the lower corners; just enough to hold interest before letting the eye release and flow into the sweeps. The stark detail of the grasses contrasting with the softness of everything else I find magical. Although it is subtle, the fact that the texture and color varies in the cloud reflections along the top is essential for me; it has just enough interest to say “beauty” without stealing anything from the show below. Even the small cluster of brown grass is just right; a nice little bit of sweetness to contrast all the savory.
Okay, back to hoi polloi where I belong. This is a true treat Kerry; encore please.
I just read your comments that were hidden, and am not changing a think I said.
2 Likes
@John_Williams nailed it.
I smiled as soon as I opened the large file and took a moment to take it all in.
1 Like
I love this one Kerry. It has so much complexity to it. I love going deeper into the image with the rocks under the reeds and the mist. Nice work here.
Congrats on the Ep @Kerry_Gordon
Quite different than the usual reeds in water photo. Nice to think outside the box.
1 Like
