Lonely labor

Fiddlestix

I captured this image one warm, smokey morning as I was taking my morning walk. I seldom carry my DSLR on these walks but was fortunate to have my iPhone handy when I saw this lonely looking farmer heading out to tend his rice fields. The slumping silhouette and the glaring sun seemed to communicate his difficult task.

David_S85

Nice capture and timing. The mood of this is very strong. The immediate foreground grasses, while providing good depth to the image, slightly competes with the farmer - the main subject.

Fiddlestix

Dave,
Thanks! Yeah, I purposely selected a location to ensure some foreground was included. Unfortunately, this grass was all there was to work with but in the end I was pleased with the color it provided to counterbalance the sun a tiny bit.

kdog

Oh wow, this is a great photo on so many levels. I agree completely about the grasses in the front adding balance to the shot. There's a triangle of three focal points, the sun, the farmer and the grasses that carries your eye around the picture. The tractor path on the diagonal bisects the photo and adds a good dynamic to the shot as well. And the pastel sky is to die for. If you'd shot this with your DSLR, you probably would have had a smoother gradation in the color of the sun, which is the only slight nit I would have with this photo. Otherwise, to me this is really a work of art. Congrats!

torags

Good one Fiddlestix

Rags

black mamba

Great shot, Stix. I like how all the included elements blend in, and balance out, to make for a captivating image.

If you watch too many of the naturalist-oriented video programs that center on your area of the world, you can easily begin to envision an image wherein there's a cobra or some other venomous snake behind every blade of grass....just waiting to pick this poor guy off. From your experience of being in that environment, is the danger as widespread as one would come to believe from exposure to certain media shows?

Thanks for a look at your world,

Tom

Fiddlestix

Thank you all very much for your comments regarding this image. They are greatly appreciated!

black mamba, having lived here for a while, I don't feel any sense of danger apart from the huge number of stray dogs (rabies is quite real here) and the local vehicle drivers (second most dangerous country to drive in). THe real challenge as an aspiring landscape photographer is the weather. The dry season here brings with it a terrible smoke filled sky (that is evident in this photo) that makes landscapes difficult. Then when the rains come, the sky clears but the temps soar until the simple act of getting to a site to take a photo results in getting soaked in perspiration.

Cheers,
Stix

FlyNavy

Nice capture! Well done.

Fiddlestix

Thank you FlyNavy.

Wiren

composition
Stix, this is a really great capture... great mood and you are right, the sun with the hunched figure.... it all just works.... except for the composition (for me at least).

I understand you wanted something in the foreground, but if there is nothing really great there and it somewhat detracts from the main subject, it's better not to include it, in my opinion.

Take the image into your pp software, do a 16x9 crop and and shrink it it from the right until you can get the bottom rule of thirds point to sit just over the subjects head... this should put the whole bottom 3rds line right near the horizon..... doesn't this composition make you image stronger? It's a crop that still shows the subject and the sun and lines them up on a focal line in the image, it also puts your horizon on the bottom 3rds focal line, thus making this a much stronger image in my opinion.

Great shot and thanks for sharing.

Lee

Wiren

alternative....
Stix, I certainly hope you don't mind, but I really liked the shot and just had to play around a bit with it, if you don't approve, let me know and I will remove.

I adjusted some of the parameters in LR (maybe overcooked it a tad...) and adjusted for the crop as I noted above.... here are both versions, my edited version first and then your original.... I think this shot has a lot of potential and is a sure wall hanger!





Cheers,

Lee

Fiddlestix

Hi Lee,

I greatly appreciate your comments and understand where you are coming from. I am in no way disturbed to see you modify the image to show me what you are thinking as it helps me to easily visualize your thoughts. That said, in my mind, I still prefer the original composition. I felt the front grasses add depth to the image as well as balance.

I would really value other opinions. Do others feel that the foreground should be cropped?

fool4thecity

I totally agree with Lee. I think the grass is a distracting element. Like how he saturated the sky, too. Would have cropped in a hair on the right, too. In the tree line, I would have cropped out that branch to make a cleaner edge. That might be getting too critically editorial, though. Anyway, its a Great shot!

Wiren

fool4thecity wrote: »

I totally agree with Lee. I think the grass is a distracting element. Like how he saturated the sky, too. Would have cropped in a hair on the right, too. In the tree line, I would have cropped out that branch to make a cleaner edge. That might be getting too critically editorial, though. Anyway, its a Great shot!

Actually, I may have cropped too agressively, I try to leave just a little room that I don't think belongs in the image to account for the mat that may go on a print... even at that, if you buy a frame, you usually lose about 1/4" on each border... account for that during cropping and then your image comes out the way you intended it.... The only time I crop just as I see it is when I print on metal that has no framing.... which I tend to do a lot.

Stix, I sure hope you plan to print a couple of these off for sale, whether your original or some version otherwise, I think you should attempt selling this image, it's one that sooooo many people would say, "that would look good on my wall".

Fiddlestix

Mike and Lee,

REALLY appreciate both of your suggestions and your comments. Lee, I am not sure how large of a print I will be able to make coming out of an iPhone especially after cropping but will give it a look and see what comes of it. Thanks again for your advice. I will give the crop and saturation a go on a copy of the image. Many thanks, Stix