Late Afternoon Reflections

Happy New Year to all. This is my first photo posting to BPN. I hope I'm submitting to the appropriate forum. This is one of a series shot at Knight Lake in Green Lane Park, PA. I initially went to shoot birds and look at some new locations. There were no birds, but I came to a vantage point and saw these reflections. There are many rocks and limbs in the lake so I tried to frame away from them and still get the sycamores in interesting positions. I did crop a bit of distractive material off the bottom. The small bit of yellow is a person walking through the area, perhaps a distraction? The orange in the sky didn't last long. I felt fortunate to be in place in the moment. Taken Nov. 9 with a Canon XSi, Canon 400mm f5.6L @ f6.3, 1/40sec, evaluative metering, one shot AF, used a monopod, image inverted and only a bit of contrast added in DPP. I appreciate any comments/suggestions. Thank-you.

Laura, without your description, I would have bypassed this photo as a wildly out of focus pic. I'm glad I took the time to read you description. It is a wonderful photo, kind of a sureal experience. Your description "for me" and verbage are an important part to help me process it.
Without the verbage, I think you wold need the shore line trees to anchor it visually.
It might be better if it was a little brighter. IMO you really showed great vision when you shot this one.

Laura, you're in the right place! Welcome to OOTB:S3: I love the image - it has an impressionistic feel to it that is very appealing. The different layers of color makes it especially interesting. I do think the yellow object is distracting and would either tone it down or remove it. (I thought it was a light flare). I also would remove the diagonal branch in the very lower right hand corner and maybe crop a sliver off of the right side to eliminate the partial line of grass or tree branch on the lower right edge. I hope we see lots more!!!

Gary, thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughtful reply. When reading the posting instructions I saw the notation regarding thought process. In light of that I thought it a good idea to explain conditions.

Hello Cheryl, thank you for your comments, suggestions, and the warm welcome. I'll work on the lower right corner. I think I can eliminate the branch and still keep the color at the bottom. I can take care of the person also. These are things that I'm currently learning how to do. I like this forum and hope I can keep up. :S3: I'll be over in Macro also a I shoot quite a lot of fungi and botanic material.

Great first image in OOTB, Laura! Agree with comments and appreciate your explanation. The repetitive elements are especially appealing to me.

Here is a fixed version. I'm rather clumbsy with these techniques, but will improve with practice.

Steve, thank you for your comments. From a fellow
spirographer.

Attachment 122813

Good job on the repost!

Laura, the repost looks perfect:S3:

Steve, Cheryl, thank you. Yes, this has been a good beginning.

Laura, Big welcome to OOTB and to BPN! Your first posting is wonderful :S3: Cheryl addressed my initial thoughts and I like what you did for the repost. You posted this in the right forum and I have a feeling you are going to fit in nicely with the group. You have a great eye judging from your first post!

Great work on the re-post. Inverting the image was a great idea. I very much like the composition and the overall feel of the image. Your Reflections album has some wonderful images, as well. Thank you for sharing these with us.

Denise, thank you for the comments and the welcome. BPN is a wonderful place and I've picked up many ideas to take to the field. Here in OOTB I've seen some very inspirational ideas and they have compelled me to think in different ways. This is a good place to be.

Dennis, thank you and I'm happy to hear that you took a look at the Reflections album. It is my intent to put more material in albums over time. I hope folks enjoy them.

Welcome to this friendly and helpful forum!
I like your repost. You did a good job at eliminating the distracting elements. The shapes of the Sycamore trunks are just lovely, softened by the water. They seem mysterious. I brightened up the image using a levels adjustment layer (could also have used brightnes/contrast), but in doing so I may have spoiled your vision. Just presenting another possibility. I hope you post more in this forum.

Hi Anita,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the photo and play with it. I think the only "vision" I had was to capture the moment as it was in terms of color and feel presented by nature. In this case nature did all the work, I just had to see it and act. The brighter version is different in feel, to me, but these are personal preferences. I'm not saying that the difference is good or not, just different. The orange in the sky can start to look like a forest fire if brightened too much and that would become a completely different image.

I plan to post here in the future. I am a beginner with these techniques and so not very prolific. I'll get there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Laura Weishaupt

Hi Anita,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the photo and play with it. I think the only "vision" I had was to capture the moment as it was in terms of color and feel presented by nature. In this case nature did all the work, I just had to see it and act. The brighter version is different in feel, to me, but these are personal preferences. I'm not saying that the difference is good or not, just different. The orange in the sky can start to look like a forest fire if brightened too much and that would become a completely different image.

I plan to post here in the future. I am a beginner with these techniques and so not very prolific. I'll get there.

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What matters most is your vision! I'm glad you were not offended by my playing with your image.

Hi Anita,

Goodness, no, I was not offended in any way. This is, after all, a critique forum. I come here with an open mind and heart.:S3: