Big Cypress Swamp

[Harold Davis]

this was actually taken in the little pond right of clyde butcher's gallery in the swamp. i'm a big fan of b&w and have been trying to learn how to give these the proper treatments. did the conversion here in capture nx. went in to color balance and added a little red and some yellow for the sepia feel. what do you think?

Nikon D300, Sigma 50-500 at 50mm, f/13, 1/200s, -1.3EV, ISO 720

thanks for looking and i appreciate your comments.

[Robert Amoruso]

Harold,

I think you did well capturing the sepia look but compositionally, the image is not appealing to me. I will be the first to admit, Florida landscapes are difficult which is why I don't make too many landscape images here. Which is why I have bought a bunch of books by Florida landscape photographers (Butcher included) and will be trying to develop a style suited to this state. Sorry to be so blunt - I have been thinking about how to write this critique for about 3 hours.

[Harold Davis]

not a problem, robert. it's funny that you say that. sunday i was at ENP and while driving down the road would slam on brakes and back up everytime i thought i saw a composition. after a few times, the wife was getting pretty annoyed. so was i. she just didnt know it.

you are right. florida landscapes are tough. i didnt feel this was very strong. although i am trying to work on the conversion technique.

i appreciate your honesty, immensely. if i cant learn, i cant progress and that's counterproductive.

thanks again

[Robert Amoruso]

Harold,

Thanks. I will be interested in what you come up with. As I find a style for Florida I will be sharing it with you all. I remarked in another forum that I had purchased some "painting - art" type books on composition to see what is being taught to painters on how to arrange elements in images. An we photographers can do is move ourselves in the landscape to influence how the elements of an image line up, but I thought knowig how a painter does it would be useful.

[Robert O'Toole]

My 10 second response :)

Well the image was processed okay, and the effect looks good but the problem is easy. There is no subject, nowhere for the eye to go. I would have either put the 50-500 away and used a 14 or 15mm or used the 50-500 at 500 and zoomed in on some loss or other details. I think the winner would have been to go 14mm so you could frame the trees to the right and left and framed the cypress trees up to the tops and gotten the whole thing in the reflection.

There is enough material in a cypress swamp to inspire me to shoot all day with one 14mm lens. Sometimes having a big old zoom or 25 lenses and 100 lb of gear can sometimes lead to analysis paralysis. Just grab a tripod a wide angle and get creative :)

Robert