Where does the path in the fog lead

What makes this image expressive?

The image was taken during a photo workshop with Michael Frye in the Redwoods National Park, the fog was intermittent (heavy and light) and I felt as if I was being drawn into the scene and being beckoned to follow the path, and find out where it leads to.

Specific Feedback Requested

I am a hobbyist photographer and would appreciate any feedback you have, particularly on the overall composition. There was minimal post processing on the image, I did take out a reflection in the path about 2/3rds down the path since it was a bit of a glaring distraction and my eye was drawn to the selection rather than down the path.

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Ian, welcome to NPN. I know you’ll get lots out of our community and hope you contribute to it as well. This is a great forest scene with a wonderful leading line. I too look forward to Alister’s comments.

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Welcome to NPN and thanks for your image.

You’re lucky to get the fog, that always adds such a mysterious quality to forest scenes. Expressive Photography is a curious sub-branch of landscape photography, because we are in most cases using natural elements to infer meaning and metaphor. Of course a path through the forest literally asks the question “where does the path go?” so the image can very much be taken at face value.

This isn’t a criticism, it is just an observation as to what is really there, versus what is the artist bringing to the image.

Composition is another curious thing from an expressive perspective, because it doesn’t rely on any of the traditional language of image analysis.

You will never hear me say “leading line” for example. Yes, the line leads into the frame, but it also comes towards us, and is’t therefore always leading! Semantics perhaps!

I prefer to look on this and ask: “What are the consequences of the arrangement?”

The path is somewhat central, so the frame becomes bisected by it. The left and right sides are very different and the distribution of trees, space and vegetation are very different. This leads to it feeling bit unbalanced. I played around with various crops:

Eliminating some of the right:

Then some of the left:

Of these two, I prefer the later, it feels more open, inviting and generally fits the question better.

Finally, I did the unthinkable!!

The world is certainly filled with opportunities.

Thanks and again, welcome to NPN.

Thank you for your comments, I did not think of cropping the image left or right, and I like your assessment of cropping the left with openness of the image. For me the last crop leads to the question “Where am I and how did I get here?”

Thanks Again

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Thanks Ian, I am pleased the feedback was helpful. I had to smile at your last sentence… Was that the Talking Heads?