lake toxaway

[stuart wanuck]

nikon d 800
iso 400

[Don Railton]

Hi Stuart

I like the setting and the concept but not the execution.. This image for me has beautiful flowers nicely captured but the Bg water is bright and draws attention away from the flowers. Not a problem for me if the water is in focus, (its good in fact to draw the eye through the image) but as it is I am drawn away from the flowers to a blurry BG which is not working for me... sorry if I am brutally honest, I only wanted to be honest.. My suggestion would be to use a larger DOF and maybe to have the waterfall enter and exit at the corners or a bit lower in the frame anyway...

DON

[Dvir Barkay]

Agree with Don somewhat, the background is a nice idea to include the flowers environment but its placement with how it intersects with the waterfall is a bit distracting. If there was direct light on the flowers and maybe less light on the waterfall the eyes would first be drawn to the flowers and lead to a more balanced scene.

[Dave Mills]

Using the waterfalls as an oof backround is distracting. I don't feel the 2 main elements work together. Not a thing wrong with being honest in ones critique. Thats the only way people learn and grow.

[Norm Dulak]

I agree with the comments made above. The foreground flowers are nice, but the background OOF rocks and blown out water do not work for me.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Stuart, it is always good to experiment with compositional ideas to come up with something unique. Perhaps if you had taken 4 large steps to the right so that the flowers did not merge with the cascading water and had more of the scene in focus. The whites of the water are indeed blown out and are creating too much distraction for me. Looking forward to more!