Since we finally got some big rains this season, my favorite storm water ponds (I think they’re probably left over from hydraulic mining, actually) have filled, after a couple dry years. The ponds are quite nondescript and are down below a highway. It’s even less appealing since the 2018 fire came through here. Not a wild and scenic spot. But the reflections are very cool, especially if the water is turbid. The mixture of bare soil (the orange background, some vegetation, and the burnt tree remains look especially interesting if there is a bit of wind to create gentle ripples, as on this day.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
What about the colors? I fiddled with hues them to make the colors more appealing. The original had a rather odd yellow hue, so I adjusted yellows to be more green.
Technical Details
a7r3, 400mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 800. In processing, in addition to hue adjustment, I spread out the histogram (a lot) because the original was VERY low contrast.
It’s the colors that pulled me into this one, Bonnie. Soft and very pastel like. I have no idea what I’m looking at but that’s another reason I like this so much. It’s very abstract. This is something I could see framed an hung in an art gallery or any home. It’s very painterly, almost water color but could easily be oil painting too. I think you did good with the colors. I don’t think yellow would have worked with this image. Well seen. You have a gift for this sort of shot.
Bonnie, the pastel colors make this a fine subtle reflection image. In my experience, reflections are often quite limited in dynamic range and expanding the histogram often results in oversaturated colors. You controlled the histogram expansion very well here. I used to visit a runoff control pond regularly and while it was distinctly “junky”, I could still get some very nice reflections from it.
Lovely abstract watercolor painterly feel to this one, Bonnie. It has a mysterious curiosity to it that I could stare at for a long time. You have certainly handled the soft colors quite nicely. Very nicely seen.
Really beautiful scene, Bonnie. I would never know it’s just a drain pond. It looks like you’re in the woods on an early Spring day. Really love the colors and what look like birch trees.
I love the soft colors. The rippled textures almost make it look like ICM. It’s enigmatic in that it’s hard to tell what season it might have been taken in.
Wow, I really like this image with its subtle colors and structure and the wave ripples giving texture. At first I thought that maybe a square crop deleting some of the upper part of the image could be an alternative, but then the calmness of the image disappeared. Learning that then I tried to do the opposite, to crop from below. I do not know if i tis better but I think that such a crop end up in a calmer image that may have some benefits. Here is a quick try:
No, it didn’t. I fiddled a lot with the colors - once you start down that path, it’s hard to decide where and how far to go!
Yes, I always find it amazing how the colors come come out when the histogram is expanded.
I thought so too, after I fiddled with the yellows to make them more green, towards the spring-green end of the spectrum.
Your crop does have a more serene feel to it, with the square-ish ratio and elimination of the squiggly bottom trunks. I’ll have to think on the crop options. Thanks!
