Please share your first response before reading the hidden notes below. The photographer is looking for an unbiased initial impression.
I do a lot of hiking and have taken dozens of picture trying to caption the trail experience. Most fall flat and just look like snapshots. This is one that I think words. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Curtis, I agree, this is a successful look along this trail. For me, the framing, with the mossy rocks on the right and the hill with it’s trees and shrubs on the left balance well. Having the distance bright and slightly soft helps pull the viewer’s eyes into the distance as if walking along the trail.
Hi Curtis,
This feels very much like a hiking experience. The vertical composition gives us some headroom and as Mark indicates, the left and right helps us feel like we are traversing and curving around toward the right, toward the light.
As for focus, I feel like near elements are a bit soft. It could be the jpeg conversion or the use of a macro lens at f/9.5.
Nicely done though. This is a very “hikerly” image, and it doesn’t feel terribly different from hiking in Oregon, regardless of how differen the ecosystems are. That suggests it hits a common denominator in hiking experiences.
ML
Thanks Marylynn. The specific feedback is very useful. The only hiking I’ve done in Oregon has been in vineyards, and those created very different kinds of images…
Hi Curtis,
I think you captured the hiking experience very nicely with this image. I like your placement of the trail in the scene as it directs me to that exquisite soft light in the BG trees. Your framing of the right and left sides of the frame also helps direct the viewer into the scene although I do find myself wishing to see a little more of that moss covered bank on the right as it looks just a little cut off IMO. I also wish that it was in focus. Maybe a focus sctack next time or a smaller f stop? This reminds me of some of the trails in Swallow Falls SP in Western MD. Very nicely done.
