I had the good fortune to spend a week in Death Valley recently as part of a workshop. Our first outing was to the Mesquite Dunes on a windy afternoon/evening.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
With this image I am trying to convey the intensity of the experience. The rush of getting to the location while the conditions were still so extraordinary, the windy conditions blowing sand everywhere (including in my mouth!), and the lovely light.
i like very much the overall mood of this picture. Love the color contrast, the light contrast and, in a way, the “chaos” involved.
On the other side I fell there is too much chaos, so I like to propose, if you don’t mind , an alternative crop.
Dean, it’s always difficult in my opinion when and where to crop/comp images like this. I have a terrible time with my images from The Palouse. Where should I crop…oh that hill is just a bit much, but if I crop it out, it wrecks the rest of the frame…
So, I will say that I like your image as is. There may be some room to crop down from the top, but I don’t know where to draw that line. I do like what @joaoquintela did. It does simplify and makes it more about the shapes/textures/light than the overall scene. Either way, it works well.
Death Valley is on my bucket list. I think 2024 is going to be my trip there.
Thank you @joaoquintela and @David_Bostock. I contemplated different crops and went with pretty much as captured. I’ll give it more thought and experimentation. I’m hoping to make Death Valley an annual visit.
Wonderful dune landscape! This one stands out because of that blowing sand - you’ve done a great job capturing and presenting that.
And what about your gear! I’d be very hesitant to venture out in those conditions! But being able to experience and capture this was worth it!
The issue of cropping has been mentioned already, and I just mentioned in Roberta’s Namibia post as well - scenes like this there is usually no clean line to crop - unless you help a little. I too was thinking a few extra lines on the top edge weren’t so clean. Joao’s get’s closer. I took it a little further. There remained a short diagonal in the URC, that I then cloned away. Also came in a little on the right to eliminate a small patch up there on the right.
Just an alternate, not sure it’s any better - But for sure, the main story is the blowing sand and of course the light, shadow and all the lines and shapes created. Wonderful dune image. Congrats.
Love the lines and the softness of this image. Only thing I would consider, is a small crop off the top as there is a dark void spot near the middle. Well done!
