The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Wandering through Oregon last June, I stopped at the side of the road to stretch my legs and let the dog have a “comfort stop.” Remnants of the Canyon Creek Complex Fire littered the slope across from me, and the sun near solar noon was creating what I thought was an interesting interplay of trees and their shadows.
Specific Feedback
This is not a typical image for me, but I’ve been enjoying experimenting with different views and would love your honest assessment.
Technical Details
NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 24-200 f/4-6.3 VR at 88.0 mm
1/100 sec. at f/9.0 and ISO 64
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
I quite like this John. The light: along with the trees and their shadows; has created some wonderful vertical lines that are reinforced by the vertical format. I am also enjoying the textures and details of the regenerating vegetation that is starting to spring up after the fire. I could see a small crop from the bottom to get rid of that one stump in the middle bottom edge and a couple of darker areas in the LLC as they disrupt the flow just a little for me. Just my opinion of course. I hope you do not mind, but here is what I was thinking.This looks like a very fortuitous rest stop IMO. I hope you try more of these.
I find this picture heart-breaking. Over the last sixteen years or so, my wife and I have spent four to five weeks each August and September paddling the more remote regions of Northwestern Ontario and Northeastern Manitoba. It is boreal forest and very delicate. Last year was our last trip, not because we’re getting old (of course that is also true) but because there really isn’t anywhere left to paddle that isn’t blackened forest remnants and bald rock. These wild fires, as I’m sure you know, are not primarily or directly caused by human negligence - failure to put out a fire or dropping a lit cigarette. Rather they are due mostly to lightning strikes, which due to global climate change are much more prevalent. On top of that, also due to global climate change, forest pests are moving north to areas where the forests are unable to protect themselves from these intruders. The combination of all of this is a tinderbox that is tragically vulnerable. Your picture captures this stark and sad reality. I find it difficult to take these pictures except in the way of Edward Burtynsky, who seeks to find the beauty even in ecological tragedy (see, for example, his arial photographs of the Niger River delta).: https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs
Anyway, I appreciate your photograph at many levels.
John, a forest recovering after a burn can be quite interesting (albeit stark) because of the mix of dead standing trees and new growth on the ground. This view shows off that contrast well, especially with the long shadows parallel to the standing trees.
The first year I rode Cycle Oregon, our route took us through this canyon. This was the first time I had been back, and I was amazed at how it had change from a forest to feeling more like a desert. I know that in the end nature always wins, but it I also know we risk ending up with something a lot less desirable when our fires burn as intensely as many of them do these days.
The biggest impact for me in the cascades is how miserable a trail can be as these trees fall in winter and wind. It can turn a pleasant hike into a long scramble over fallen trunks. Unfortunately, Poison Oak does much better after fires too, and I’ve had some real misery from that as well.
All right. My opinion is that the composition doesn’t match the statement. This is a pattern shot. To show devastation you need angles, helter skelter shapes, twisted branches. That sort of thing. The composition should emotionally match the statement. There is some of that in the bottom half but overall it’s a composition of parallel vertical lines. That’s my initial reaction.
Thanks Igor; a pattern shot was what I was trying to capture (as I noted, the “interplay of trees and their shadows”); I appreciate the feedback. (I should have come up with a better title!)
When the sun is right, these burnt stick-trees do make interesting shadows. When the burnt trees are on a snowy, rounded hill, the shadows can be quite cool. Since you’re going for the shadows here, I could see brightening it up a bit while holding the shadows, for more pop.
I feel this way, too. These landscapes can be quite ugly, but as you commented on my recent post, it’s an ugly beauty.
