Diagonals

[Morkel Erasmus]

So before I coast on over to Etosha and the Kalahari with my family for 2 weeks of safari/familytime...here's a last post!

I've been going through some unprocessed landscape images from 2011...and it's strange how time away from a specific shoot lets you realise what you did wrong, and also shows you some things that you did right which you felt were not really "hot & happening" at the time. :Whoa!:


So here's one I'd like some straight-shooting opinions on. At the time I wanted to shoot this pre-sunrise scene over the rolling Maluti mountains to show the vestiges of the more "foreboding" Drakensberg peaks at the back, and I quite like the diagonal lines leading you in. I'm starting to debate my own choice of foreground elements these days - it feels like I'm often choosing a "too strong" foreground anchor (if there is such a thing...what I mean is that sometimes the scene needs to get the attention, and placing a prominent rock or bush or tree in the immediate foreground then "robs" the real vista of some of the attention.


What do you think?


Techs:
Canon 7D with 10-22mm USM @ 22mm
f16 @ ISO-100
Blend of 3 exposures using luminosity masks

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Morkel, I love this one. The rocks among the grasses in the lower left provide a subtle anchor that works very effectively for this comp. And you have left just enough sky and were careful not to cut-off the main cloud too. Very nice work!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - I agree with Andrew, this is very pleasant. The slopes lead you into the image and then the warm colors sort of envelop you. It works for me as is.

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Nelson]

I like the colors and the blue adds to the distance of the mountains. You were thinking about anchors - but you have the three rocks on the left, bottom (including the two along the bottom left edge and that vertical at 8 o'clock. and the rock on the right side. These anchor well without detracting from the grand vista. I tried cropping them out or eliminating but they really do work well here, so I wouldn't. If you'd wanted to strengthen them you could have gotten just a bit lower and used a tilt-shift lens like a view camera.... but then you'd have to watch for dropout of focus in the middle distance canyon above and below the shifted plane of focus.

[Don Railton]

This works well for me too Morkel...! I especially like the colours of the patchy green amongst the brown and the pastel sky, I also like the various lines that intersect... I think the rock 'anchors' are spot on, subtle enough to do the job without stealing from the grand vista. Well done.

DON

[dankearl]

While I find it pleasant, I do think it lacks a dramatic focal point. My eye is lead to distant peaks which are too far off to really
interest me.

[Chris Ober]

Good scene overal I think. The muted colors with the grand view do it for me. I too question the strong foregrounds in my own at times. I think it works here without one.