Wild Albany

Cheers,

Jim

Beautiful addition to your gallery !

Great composition.7/7anon.Regards.Janusz.

Amazing light composition

Interesting! Regards.

Wonderful work. Very good light. my atention are on tree shadow. Regards

Excellent image - great composition. Well done.

 

Paul

Excellent IR image Jim. Comp and lighting are superb. I had my D100 converted and this gives me inspiration to take it out more often.

Wow awesome work!

Very effective production

There is such a sense of swirling movement here that is very nice. Everything seems to be in motion.

 

I think the strong shadows of the trunk are probably what 'make' the image.

This is a wonderful composition. The IR+b/w really makes the textures of the sky and clouds jump out of the image.

I've admired your work for some time. This shot is really stunning.

Stunning indeed!

wonderful, very artistic, congratulations

love the "top half" of this photo - the fury and power of the tree and cloud movement are just fantastic.

simulatneously, i don't get much from the "bottom half" of the photo (from the bottom of the tree trunk and down from there). i don't see how it adds to the story.

such a powerful photo - but i think some cropping could send a more powerful message here.

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I think the tonal quality is excellent, the IR creates nice contrast. The composition is good, but bothers me a little. Putting the sun behind the tree is a good choice, otherwise you could get an ugly hot spot, so this limited the compositional choices some. I don't care for the tree shadow, it reminds me too much of a shadow of a person's legs. Maybe a few steps forward and a horizontal shot would be better (or maybe not).

It seems a bit odd to have a POW that is just the "next" image after a previous POW shot at the same time by the same photographer, but here it is 2 years later. Reading my comment from two years ago, I don't know that the overall sentiment is much different although specifics might be.

There were a lot of nice elements seen here and I can understand the attraction to the scene,but the image has become extremely busy and lost focus. There is just a sense that everything is laying on the surface and there is no depth (physical or metaphoric) to the image.

The problem is that as I think about what isn't working and try to write them down, I actually can then see that those things could actually be very positive if they worked. Things like using the shape of the cloud mass behind the tree to integrate with and actually extend the form of the tree. Or the use of the low clouds on the right to extend the idea of the bushes in the distance. The problem is that I just don't think either was pulled off. The cloud around the tree doesn't integrate well enough and the clouds in the distance just add to a rather busy field of texture along the right side of the image--largely exacerbated by the IR effect. The path itself, unfortunately, doesn't add any sort of connection within the image, but rather seems to end without effect.

I think my overall impression is that there was probably something here that just never got organized and simplified into a meaningful image. There is a sense of "curb appeal" to the image, but as I said above, just not much depth. (In some ways, I think the IR didn't help, but maybe hurt this image's ability to resolve itself)

I have to disagree with Tom's comments above. I see the clouds and foreground bushes swirling in an oval sweep of glowing light around the tree. The shadow draws you into the vortex and points to the tree at the apex of power and light. IR lends a magical otherworldly feel. I'd like to know some technical info though - I'm assuming this was done with an IR converted camera.

I have to disagree with Tom's comments above. I see the clouds and foreground bushes swirling in an oval sweep of glowing light around the tree. The shadow draws you into the vortex and points to the tree at the apex of power and light. IR lends a magical otherworldly feel. I'd like to know some technical info though - I'm assuming this was done with an IR converted camera.

I have to disagree with Tom's comments above. I see the clouds and foreground bushes swirling in an oval sweep of glowing light around the tree. The shadow draws you into the vortex and points to the tree at the apex of power and light. IR lends a magical otherworldly feel. I'd like to know some technical info though - I'm assuming this was done with an IR converted camera.

This does what infrared photograph is supposed to do. What is wild is not Albany but the photographic effects. As with anything this that depends entirely on an extraordinary effects, either it moves you or it does not. I am not moved mainly for this reason: It has been done before and done better. While the effects are extraordinary the image itself is not. It is too busy. It would be unbearably busy in normal mode. As it is, it is just barely bearable (excuse me). The best thing about this photograph is the tree's shadow. It is truly the mother of all shadows. If only the photograph had concentrated on that.

I presume that Jim Callum is using a converted digital camera sensor (no IR cut filter) for this, instead of artificial IR post exposure conversion (but maybe he has employed both). The many plants in this image reflect IR from the chlorophyl beneath their surface, which can give an almost pure white (and with some IR films, but not here) a halo effect about the object, which is often very interesting. But, alas, those films are history.

The best IR images I have seen are not overblown as this one is, with so much going on. They hint at the IR effect, subtly, either by limiting the chlorophyl reflecting substances in the image, or by using less dynamic lighting. His photo has a wow factor on immediate viewing, like some of his Hawaii images in his portfolio or many other overblown IR images, but there seems to me to be too much going on here to provide us a compelling interpretation of his subject. What subject matter is the most important in this image? Maybe the nicely lit tree by itself. But not everything, I believe. As Alex says, the most intriguing part is probably the tree shadow on the textured ground. By coming in closer, which is usually a good perception alternative, I feel that Jim might have done something more intriguing with that element (slightly different angles, minor inclusion of bright plants, or not, etc.).

Jim, if I don't receive the stones and arrows of miscontent from others, who may dislike someone taking the liberty to reframe the photo of another as a means of communicating a thought, I probably well deserve that reaction from you. However, given that this is a critique forum and open to discussion, my comment regarding what I feel might be the simplification of your subject matter in what I feel is a heavily charged image is offered in the two following images which have benefitted from parts of your interesting POW. I am not sure they add anything very aesthetic, but they are meant simply to show what may be the sometimes advantage of closer, closer, closer, in perceiving a scene.