It was a fairly sparse year for color on my October Utah trip, but there was some to be found. This cottonwood has a bentonite background.
D850, 70-200mm
Repost:
Original:
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Harley, this image depicts what we often see in our southwestern regions and what can provide some outstanding scenes for photography too. The sage, rabbit, and scrub brush all add to that high desert scenery. The cottonwood provides some wonderful fall color and is a real standout as a result of the backdrop of the bentonite formation. The bentonite almost looks like it was designed as a canvas background here.
I don’t know which one I like more, the cottonwood or the bentonite. My only wish is to have just a little more on top and less of the sagebrush… There is a 50-50 composition feel to it.
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Absolutely gorgeous. I really like the contrast in the yellow foliage and the bentonite’s purplish hues. Thanks for sharing.
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This came our looking good, Harley. This has a bit of a Guy Tal look to it with the exaggerated colors. What about treating enhancing the purple as well?
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What an amazing mosaic of color in this scene. I wish we had rabbit brush and sage back here in the east, I enjoy shooting them whenever I visit the southwest. I think @Igor_Doncov rework of the purples does some nice things. I like the comp as presented, it’s well balanced. My only suggested tweak would be a slight burning of the brightest tones in the ULC.
Harley,
Wonderful use of color in this one, and I, like @Ed_McGuirk mentioned, find the brush very interesting. @Adhika_Lie makes an interesting point about the 50/50 feel of this one. I initially thought so as well, but I would not want to lose any of the wonderful brush foreground, and I am guessing the slope above the tree was not helpful.
Nice work on putting this composition together!
Wonderful! It reminded me of Guy Tal right away. Those gnarled desert cottonwoods are amazing and you have done this one justice.
What a catch to find the trees with that backdrop, and the foreground vegetation makes it all even more interesting. I too like the comp as is, and @Igor_Doncov’s color suggestion (although maybe just a tad less).
Excellent shot! Love this a ton. So interesting. I particularly like the purplish color of the bentonite mimicked in the brush on the mid and left in front of the tree.
Not my vision that matters here, but i’d be tempted to crop slightly from the bottom - about 10-20%, and gently augment the colors in the foreground brush that mimicks the stone.
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This color palette is fascinating. We also have great autumn colors here, but that’s breathtaking. The composition of the tree with the background is great and then this wonderful grass. I agree with @Adhika_Lie @Jim_McGovern that a little cutting from the bottom would do the top part good and bring out more.
Superb Image
This is exquisite, Harley! IMO I would not crop any of the FG as it it so colorful and interesting to the scene and compliments the colorful rock behind the cottonwood tree. My only suggestion would be to clone out the couple of rocks along the top edge left of the main rock. No one else mentioned it, but for some reason they seem to catch my eye a little. I know I mentioned it before, but you are killing it with these images from your Utah trip.
Many thanks for the comments and suggestions from @Paul_Breitkreuz, @Adhika_Lie, @Adam_Bolyard, @Igor_Doncov, @Ed_McGuirk, @Alan_Kreyger, @Diane_Miller, @John_Williams, @Jim_McGovern, @Martin9 and @Ed_Lowe. I added luminosity to the purples and did some edge cleanup and reposted.
I find the suggestions at NPN extremely useful, whether or not I ultimately incorporate them into my images. It is great to see my images through the critical eyes of others and it helps me look at them in new ways. Thanks!
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Sweet image, Harley. Beautiful mix of colors and assortment of textures. Processing looks good as is.(honestly I’m not sure I see any improvement in the repost). Doing some screen crops I agree with the suggestions to crop a bit off the bottom - maybe bringing back to a 2:3 aspect ratio.
Just scrolled through your portfolio here and this one immediately caught my attention. The colours are gorgeous - especially the two brightest subjects standing in front of that unusually shaped purple rock make it very special in my opninion. Nice!
Grt, Ingrid.