Southern Utah

ktblue

Hi! I am just starting out, and would love any advice you may want to offer. I have a Nikon d700, and these shots were all shot this August with a Tamron 17-35mm wide angle zoom. I'd have preferred more "subject" matter for the foreground (not a cowboy, steer skull or tumbleweed to be found that trip That said, I'd love to know where you think I could improve, technically or subjectively. Thanks everyone! Kate



Sun cresting the Court of the Patriarchs, Zion Nat'l Park




Red Cliffs outside Moab, Utah




Jade river at Mossy Cave, Hwy 12 Utah




Red Canyon Rider, Utah




Narrows, Zion Nat'l Park. (shot with Lumix point/shoot)





Capitol Reef Nat'l Park




General Store, Torrey Utah




Mesa arch at sunrise, Canyonlands

squirl033

hi Kate,

some pretty nice stuff there... that's a gorgeous part of the country, with so many photo ops it's unreal. i love the old wagon, and the Narrows at Zion look like a wonderful spot! your shot of the river on the Mossy Creek trail is a bit different from the ones i got a couple of years ago from the other side of the river, and i like the more "straight upstream" perspective you got.

how do you like the Tammy 17-35 on your D700? i find on my Canon 5D (also full-frame) that it's very soft in the corners, and gets kinda dark and fuzzy especially at apertures wider than about f/8. i can see some of that in your first image here...

starcluster

#1 is it really Gold mountain??! O.o

#2 didnt like the composition here (sorry)
#3& 5&6&8, better composition, and work with the colors
My Fav are 8 and 6

well done

ktblue

starcluster wrote: »

#1 is it really Gold mountain??! O.o

Yes, that's not color corrected. at the crack of sunrise, that ridge in Zion glows golden orange. The exposure was pretty high though -- looks a bit lighter in the shot than it did to the eye. Thanks for the feedback, it's all helpful. I'm trying to learn what elements make for a good landscape. This was my first attempt.

starcluster

ktblue wrote: »

Yes, that's not color corrected. at the crack of sunrise, that ridge in Zion glows golden orange. The exposure was pretty high though -- looks a bit lighter in the shot than it did to the eye. Thanks for the feedback, it's all helpful. I'm trying to learn what elements make for a good landscape. This was my first attempt.

wow!!

good luck on getting your best shot
and you are welcome

Stash

Some very nice shots. I think #2 might have worked better if you had zoomed with your feet and gotten over top of that fence line. Maybe show us what is to the right of the frame?
My $.02 cents, but I'm learning as well. That D700 is one sweet tool!

eoren1

Kate-
I really like the Narrows shot!
The first three could be improved by moving in closer. I found that the ultrawides often need a strong foreground element and you have that in the wooden fence but the foreground sand/shrubs detract from it a bit. with the first one, getting into that clearing would have kept some of the shrubs from cluttering and distracting from the focal point.
The motorcycle is nice but that darn sign....
As for Mesa, you did well with a single exposure. That area has such a humongous dynamic range that HDR/exposure fusion might offer you some very interesting possibilities.
E

TreyHoff

Nice! I like the wagon shot as well, but I keep wondering what that mountain behind looks like. Maybe this could have been shot as a vertical with the wagon as the foreground and mountain as background. Hard to say without actually being there

I really like the narrows shot (except for the person behind the foilage.) I very rarely include people in landscapes, but this could work if the person were in full view maybe further back in the canyon. I think if the person were closer it would cause distraction of the overall image. Great compostion. Were you standing in the water for this shot? I've been wanting to hike that canyon.

Keep it up.

ktblue

Thanks so much for the commentary--really helpful, and I appreciate the time you took to help. I actually do have many other angles and exposure types on all these shots. I won't post them, so as not to spam the board, but I will adjust my portfolio accordingly. Something I was loving about Utah was all the dramatic colors you'd see in one eyeful: green, blue, red, yellow--thus, in the first shot, for example, I chose to leave in the (boring) foreground for the purpose of getting a green element into the wholistic image to demonstrate this full color range in some of these shots. However, what I'm hearing is perhaps that's less important than assuring there's always a foreground element....

Thanks again everyone!!

ridgemac

The pics are great!
I think the foreground can be important for including additional colors not otherwise in the shot - please don't be dissuaded from doing that.
Thanks,