Hoh

All comments are welcome.

This is from my visit to the Hoh rainforest. It was really sunny and the whole place was much too high-contrast for my regular camera. But, my infrared-converted D80 gave me a couple of exposures worth working with (although it still had trouble handling the contrasts).

Thanks for your time.

I think the problem here is that the highly complex branching is an image of it's own and one that needs some careful selection to grab a theme or "flow." The addition of the fern just adds another element for the eye to search for a theme. To me the fern adds very little to this image and I think your attention should lie within the complex branching. The enclosed image is a thought or maybe a starting place but it still suffers from too much going on with no focal point.

Maybe this is a case of scale -- these don't work here at 700 pixels but they might work at 12"x18" on paper?

Maybe this is a case of chacun à son goût (to each their own taste)?

But, for me the fern is the star and this is the B&W I am happiest with this year so far. I am simply going to sit on this (and the other) for a while and see if my opinions change with time (as they often do).

The last image I felt this way about (Piper) -- and which fared comparatively poorly online (here, elsewhere, and by email correspondence) -- won me a photo contest and $200. So, I've learned to trust my gut on occasion.

Many of my images have not faired well on Photo.net but I still believe they are good and I enjoy looking at them. There are many things that draws us to an image and sometimes it's just accomplishment that makes it special. In any case, it all comes down to you and that's all that should really matter. I hope that I in no way offended you with my suugestions, that was never my intention. These are only my opinions and I'm still learning too.

Leo, don't worry at all. I found your suggestions helpful -- even if I didn't follow them -- as they forced me to decide just how exactly I did feel about these. That is always a good thing. Some constructive criticism is always better than endless praise.

 

 

In reworking the other fern and roots image I adopted a warmer toning. Here is a similar warmer toning applied here.

 

Thanks

 

Ian