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Image Description
Along Alaska’s Dalton Highway the emptiness is practically a mandate to merge with the landscape, and the landscape I was passing through was striking. At milepost 307 begins a long stretch of exceptionally brilliant fireweed near the shoulder—an incendiary carpeting of lavender. Amid the purple, a few red and yellow wildflowers popped up like flaming sparklers while hovering above them was the fluffiness of cumulous clouds in the sky. In the distance there were hills, the near hills green and vibrant, the far White Hills a bit faded and gray—like memories of themselves. And through this resplendent beauty went the road: a long, brown, dull, undulating scar, making its way through the North Slope toward Prudoe Bay.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 28-70mm @ 60mm, f/11 @ 1/125 sec, -1 EV, ISO 100; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55; remote trigger
Nicely done. Its a busy scene what with the sky, mountains, plain and flowers. I think the large area of flowers upsets the balance of the shot so I’d go for a pano crop where the flowers take the lower third, the plain in the middle and the mountains/sky the top third.
It must have been a lovely sight.
As far as the composition goes I feel there is too large a segment of the flowers as it overpowers the rest of the image. I also feel the mountain range is far too soft. It does not need to be sharp but its softness is distracting. I agree with the above poster that a pano crop may work better.
This looks like an amazing place to be. I somewhat disagree with the other comments about how much space the flowers are taking up. It really helps to show the vastness of the scene.
I would however like to see a little more sky as the mountain/hill is a bit too close to the top of the frame. I guess that in turn would create less flowers in the image.
Beautiful shot with nice, rich colors. I like the depth and vastness of the image. At the risk of upsetting you, might I suggest adding a little canvas to the top and cloning out a couple of the neon green leaves in the FG that are eyecatchers.
Upon further reflection , I don’t feel the extra canvas is needed. You want to keep emphasis on the lovely FG.
Thank you @Mark_Orchard@mark28@Jason_Ray_Photography@Michael_Lowe for your observations and opinions. It seems I made two errors with this post: since the subject is the flowers, I should have titled the image “Fireweed Extravaganza” to tell the viewers what I am focused on; and, perhaps I should have posted this in the Flora section. The background would simply be the background and sharpness less critical.
