Moving Rocks (DVNP)

kwalsh

OK, two more from my recent Death Valley trip. Again, trying to get a slightly different perspective on the more common subjects. A few notes follow. Comments, advice, criticism greatly appreciated!





NOTES:

So these are the famous moving rocks on Racetrack Playa. The standard shot seems to be wide-angle to UWA with rock in foreground and trail moving into the background. I was hoping to do something a bit different.

The first shot was taken literally as the sun was touching the mountains to the west on its way to setting to get the strongest shadow effect. I used my tripod with legs extended but wrapped together as a boom to hold the camera about 6 ft directly above the playa pointed almost straight down, used the articulating LCD pointed back at me to compose and a cable release to trigger the shutter. When I visualized this shot before I left on my trip I envisioned the shadow being essentially black. I made an unexpected discovery though, in the shadow without direct light the surface texture just disappears and becomes a flat pattern creating an interesting result!

The second shot is a bit more standard, I wanted to compress the tracks to emphasize their bends/movement and get an OOF background. It is a bit more like most shots I see of the area, though I suppose the telephoto composition is a bit more off the beaten path. I'm not a huge fan of the bokeh in this one, I'm thinking of adding more/better blur to the background - any thoughts?

Again, like my previous two I didn't see color adding anything here so I did a B&W conversion (I did take some color photos, I promise!).

Thanks for looking!

Ken

ritewinger

These are cool, but I really like the first one. The perspective works for me. Nice job.

kdog

ritewinger wrote:

These are cool, but I really like the first one. The perspective works for me. Nice job.

That's a perspective you don't see every day.

The other shot is interesting too. I don't think I've seen such wavy lines before.

Cheers,
-joel

acowan

The racetrack has to be on any photographers list if they go to Death Valley. I'm guilty of the UWA shots when I went but I really (really, really) like that first comp. I recently went back through my shots from a year ago and did a B&W conversion similar to what you have, but you're perspective is great. The second one is nice but I'm not much on the OOF background; just not my taste (nice composition, though!).

Dogdots

This just totally amazes me. I've got to go there sometime.

I like the way you set up your first shot but I also like the rocks in the 2nd photo and the curve of the path they made. The 2nd photo...If it were mine I'd crop off the top part of the photo and just show the ground with the rocks.

dls

both shots are great, but i really like the first one. yep, it is a little different, and love the textures of the cracked mud. very striking.

CatOne

I really like the first one.

The second one; the background of the mountains is distracting and the bokeh is not good. I would crop it and get rid of that huge dark, blurry 1/3 of the photo.

kwalsh

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I'm thinking the second one was perhaps more of an attempt to do something a bit different rather than a great capture on its own merits - thanks for your honest feedback. I've got a number of other shots more along the lines of peoples suggestions so maybe I'll see if I can turn one of them into something better.

Thanks again!

Ken

Dogdots

kwalsh wrote:

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I'm thinking the second one was perhaps more of an attempt to do something a bit different rather than a great capture on its own merits - thanks for your honest feedback. I've got a number of other shots more along the lines of peoples suggestions so maybe I'll see if I can turn one of them into something better.

Thanks again!

Ken

Your second one is good in my opinion -- just crop off the top part I really like the curvy lines with the rocks. Its not a dumper by any means.

Allan FG

I agree with everyone else about the second one.

Marc Muench

I am enjoying your posts.
Although your drive to be different is good, I think you said something very important in your reply above, "I'm thinking the second one was perhaps more of an attempt to do something a bit different rather than a great capture on its own merits"

I too would enjoy the 2nd one if cropped as I do believe this is somewhat more telling of the most amazing tracks these rocks leave

Keep up the great thoughtful comments and work

kwalsh

Thanks Marc and eveyone for your excellent an helpful comments. This evening I'll do a crop of the 2nd photo, but I also have some others left on the editing room floor (as it were) that I might pick back up again and see if one of them can do a better job than a crop of #2.

It's wonderful to have a critical community take a look these shots and force me to look at them again through different eyes as well. I hope I'm able to give at least as much back in others topics. Thanks again!

Ken