I was out at Spring Creek Prairie on a November day with a class (Environmental History), when this beautiful storm began building. The sun was lowering in the sky and the conditions seemed perfect. I have some shots with waving seeding grasses in the front and landscape in the back with the clouds darkening, but I'm not very pleased with them (it was very windy).
Any tips on photographing a prairie, in particular, would be very helpful! I have looked at Sartore's and Forsberg's work, but this place presented some challenges for me.
I don't think this image "grabs", what would help it?
Thanks in advance,
Shot hand held (I didn't really have a decent tripod a few years ago) with my old
Canon ESO Digital Rebel XTi (old camera), EF-S 18-55mm, f/13, 1/400 +.33 ISO 800
Hi Sandra: Not into landscapes, but I like yours with the wagon wheel and the path nicely balanced. If it was mine I would rotate the horizon 1 degree CCW, give it a bit of contrast & a tad of smart sharpening.
Like I said, I'm not much into landscapes, but the colors and composition sorta grab me.
Quite a co-incidence, we just had a 2 hour monsoon with lightening, thunder & a deluge. Love those wild dark skies.
Hi Sandra, I like the feel of the image...almost like a wyeth thats simple and alot of grasses like one of his most famous paintings.
Not sure if the image needs a rotation due undulating terrain in the backround. Good light and you were fortunate to get it sharp throughout at F13.
You handled the comp well with the wheel in the rt foreground and the path on the left. I would like to have seen more room on the left and right which would have gotten the wheel away from the edge
and shown more of the path on the left. If the 2 bars weren't too much higher I would of preferred them unclipped
Hi Sandra - agree with Dave's points and I would consider adding a bit of warmth to it - feels like it needs that later afternoon golden light to really lift it.
:)
It is a nice image, if it were mine I would rotate the horizon, warm up the dry grass and punch up the green grass a little, maybe even dodge it slightly to lead the eye down the path. I would also try and bring out a little more detail in the rim and hub of the wheel which would give your eye something to rest upon.
I like it, Sandra! Agree about warming up the yellows a bit (I used a selective color adjustment layer). I also sharpened selectively for the grass details and the
texture in the clouds. Working from the high-res image, this should turn out pretty decent.
There's a dust bunny halfway between the horizon and the top of the frame, about 20% in from the left edge.
Nice, evocative image. My initial reaction matched Dave's comments: if you could have stepped back a half-pace and given some more room all around it might compose a bit better for my taste. David's repost gives it some good punch.
Thanks everyone for your comments. Dave, the repost looks great--thanks for spending your time on this image. I'll play with it a little more and see what I come up with. I'm learning a lot!
Landscape
