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Questions to guide your feedback
This image is from a National Park, but not the typical landscape one would associate with this Park.
Other Information
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Image Description
This was captured in the South Dakota Badlands a bit of a hike off the main road and away from established trails. I was intrigued by the patterns of the irregular, pillow like projections formed by the serpentine, channeled water run offs topped off by the polygonal, cracked mud surfaces. Then converging together in a small canyon like vortex.
Technical Details
Camera: Canon EOS R5. Lens: Canon RF15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM @ f/22 for 1/40 sec. ISO 200.
Edited in Photoshop.
I like how the squiggly channels give the impression of a jig saw puzzle breaking up the textures and creating a flow from left to upper right. A fun image with a lot going on to keep the viewers eyes engaged. Well seen and photographed.
I love the squiggles in this one, Robert. The broken mosaic that they’re in is nice as well, but for me it’s the squiggles that make the image. You did an excellent job framing this one.
Hi Robert,
I love the combination of shapes: the mosaic patterns in the cracks, the jigsaw shapes, and then the slick trails outlining the larger shapes. It all makes for a very nice abstract.
FWIW, I can imagine both a slight dodging of the upper right or a crop to eliminate that area altogether. The place where the texture changes (where water likely settled a bit or stayed longer) tends to attract my eye. I think you could have two different images here, both your current one (but cropped more square and emphasizing the top lines in contrast to the diagonals) and then something more horizontal without the upper right corner.
Just a quick screenshot here, but something like these might work:
Hi Robert,
What a cool looking intimate landscape! The dried mud? reminds me of the scales on a snake and the channels in the mud are very much serpentine looking. I do like @Marylynne_Diggs two suggestions; especially the tighter crop as it is the most interesting section IMO. Really nicely done.
Well seen image Robert! the erosion lines going through the cracked mud really make the scene. The composition is very dynamatic. My only suggestion might be to crop out the URC, with all the leading lines going there, it ends up being the least interesting part of the image. I would crop off some from the right and if you wanted to keep the same image proportion, take a little off the bottom as well. Great image!
I’ll fall right in line with the others Robert. This is a wonderful image of patterns, and my favorite part is that you have a “macro and micro” effect going on with the small mud tiles mixed with the larger squiggly lines.
With that said, my initial reaction agrees with @Scott_Fricke that the wonderful leading lines lead to the least interesting part of the image, and I too would vote for some cropping.
Great eye and vision here, Robert. I’m kinda late and don’t want to beat a dead horse but my initial thought was that the URC was uninteresting so love @Marylynne_Diggs crops.
Ed, Thank you for your input. I normally like the tighter crops suggested here. In fact I captured several images with that composition in mind. However, I went with this one because I believe the upper pieces of the “jigsaw puzzle” create a greater feeling of dynamic movement to the image. Bob
Outstanding leading lines here. Love those squiggles. The top right corner seems a bit out of place, since the pattern doesn’t quite match up with what’s to the left or below, but I’m not sure cropping tighter from the top would really minimize that effectively without losing too much of the good stuff in the upper left corner. Great find and well-seen, Bob.
My first thought was that of running water carving those winding channels through the land in this image, which all seem to converge in the lowest point which here is in the UL corner. Really liking the textures of the mud cracks.
