Unknown Photographer, Death Valley

DavidTO

Cornflake

Very good composition and I like this. My only nitpick would be that I'm not wild about where the clouds are cropped at the top, but you may have had no choice.

DavidTO

Cornflake wrote: »

Very good composition and I like this. My only nitpick would be that I'm not wild about where the clouds are cropped at the top, but you may have had no choice.

Thanks! I most certainly could have included more clouds while shooting the scene, and it's obviously cropped, I just don't recall if I cropped the top or not. I'll check later. Thanks!

schmoo

Beautiful capture. I really had to squint!

DavidTO

Thanks! Yeah, I'm pushing the limits of what's an acceptable size for a subject in the frame.

kdog

How'd he get up there without leaving any tracks, David? Come to think of it, how'd you managed to find such a huge stretch of dunes without any foot steps at all?

DavidTO

kdog wrote: »

How'd he get up there without leaving any tracks, David? Come to think of it, how'd you managed to find such a huge stretch of dunes without any foot steps at all?

It was very windy while we were there! A good thing/bad thing kind of thing.

DavidTO

Cornflake wrote: »

Very good composition and I like this. My only nitpick would be that I'm not wild about where the clouds are cropped at the top, but you may have had no choice.

So I checked, and this image is cropped on all sides. Next time I visit the dunes I want to rent a 400 2.8! The 70-200 just isn't quite long enough for these shots, requiring cropping.

Anyway, here's the shot with the crop showing. What is it that was bugging you and how would you fix it?

Cornflake

Don't pay too much attention to me. But the clouds seem oddly cut off to me in the first one you posted. What was cropped out in the sky looks very good.

CatOne

If there's someone who climbed to the top of the highest dune and tracked everything up, I have a pretty strong suspicion as to who it might be :-)

DavidTO

CatOne wrote: »

If there's someone who climbed to the top of the highest dune and tracked everything up, I have a pretty strong suspicion as to who it might be :-)

And I know who it wasn't!

DavidTO

Aaron Nelson wrote: »

WHAT A SHOT!

I would leave in all the sky, I like the original un-cropped image.

Maybe darken the bottom with the grad a little, but man I love the light and the huge cloud shadow in this image.


just Wow on all your DV shots!

Thanks, Aaron! High praise, I appreciate it.

N3QW

Wonderful Shot

black mamba

Wonderful shot, David. I understand that he / she is principal to the title and to the theme of the picture, but I would have eliminated the person on top of the dune....keeps drawing my attention away from the scene. Just a small personal nit. It's still very well done.

Tom

DavidTO

N3QW wrote: »

Wonderful Shot

Thanks.

black mamba wrote: »

Wonderful shot, David. I understand that he / she is principal to the title and to the theme of the picture, but I would have eliminated the person on top of the dune....keeps drawing my attention away from the scene. Just a small personal nit. It's still very well done.

Tom

Thanks! Yes, I realize that most people would agree with you. I have a thing, however, for photographers in the environment. It's a personal thing, I suppose, but it just makes me feel good. At a larger scale you can see that it's a person, on the small image you see here your point is even stronger, since he's just a speck.

DavidTO

The first time it hit me was when I shot this. I kept shooting just through the arch. Then looked up and saw Marc. Bam! I realized I was missing the crucial element to the shot and it turned a flat view through that arch into something much more.



I now have a 50" print of that hanging over my work desk, to remind me of that moment and why I need to get out in the world and shoot it.

jamesl

DavidTO wrote: »

The first time it hit me was when I shot this. I kept shooting just through the arch. Then looked up and saw Marc. Bam! I realized I was missing the crucial element to the shot and it turned a flat view through that arch into something much more.



I now have a 50" print of that hanging over my work desk, to remind me of that moment and why I need to get out in the world and shoot it.

Man I just love that shot. So fantastic. I also like the DV shot and agree with incorporating people into the shot. I used to never ever want to do that, especially with my storm chasing work. I then realized how much of a perspective and human element it puts into the shot. Like this one:




I thought a while about cloning him out before it hit me, like Aaron said, that this tells the story of what we were doing and is captures all of the emotion of the shot. It's now one of my favorite images for that reason.

DavidTO

Beautiful image, Jim! (or James, which do you prefer?)

jamesl

DavidTO wrote: »

Beautiful image, Jim! (or James, which do you prefer?)

James will do just fine, thanks.

DavidTO

jamesl wrote: »

James will do just fine, thanks.

Doug Solis

Wowser! Love both of these images.. Especially the arch, beautiful composition and wonderful colors. Well done

redleash

I like all the images in this thread. I remember Marc discussing the issue of people in big landscapes when we were at the Acadia Shootout. I don't have many chances to achieve that but, like Aaron said, it is something I think about.

David, as for the question of cropping your original shot: I personally would like to see a bit more of the clouds at the top. FOr me, the panoramic crop doesn't work; I think more clouds would give me a better perspective of the extent of the place with big clouds rolling over the land. Just my 2 cents.

Lauren

Nikolai

Awesome stuff, David!
I would allow a bit more breathing space on top, too.
And, yes, I find that photographers add so much to the landscape (granted, first learned that from Marc in 2005:-)

Montana: Photographer's Paradise:



Utha: Green River:

DavidTO

re: more room on top:

For me the photo is about the lines, geometry and shading in the foreground set off against the background. For me a looser crop would weaken that part of the photo. It's not about the clouds, it's about the foreground. IMO.

Nikolai

DavidTO wrote: »

re: more room on top:

For me the photo is about the lines, geometry and shading in the foreground set off against the background. For me a looser crop would weaken that part of the photo. It's not about the clouds, it's about the foreground. IMO.

Geometry and light pattern of the dunes are beautiful, no doubts about that. Yet the clouds are still part of the frame. We have all seen all too many pictures with trees and poles growing out of a unsuspecting subject's head. Those pictures, too, were all about the foreground...