Rabbitbrush and Tufa, Mono Lake

I like the image overall Ian and the color and clarity are great but I think your foreground element takes up a bit too much of the picture. Maybe a little wider crop if possible or even a little higher. It is a nice picture regardless. Fred

Thanks Fred for the feedback. I've received a few comments about this shot that are quite similar to yours – i.e. that the foreground dominates too much when the tufa towers are the "real" subject.

 

I, of course, disagree. I just love the perfectly spherical balls of dead brush and always intended them to be the stars of the composition. If anything, maybe I should have found a way to make the foregrounds more clearly the focus.

 

Perhaps the wider crop you suggested would have achieved this? Oh well, until I return to this wondrous place . . .

 

Funny, I hadn't considered anything but the foreground brush to be the "subject" though I actually find it more of a compositional piece than a subject/predicate affair. I think the textures in the foreground as well as the tilt toward magenta lighting does highlight what you want, though the perspective certain gives a strong place to the tufa behind. Upon seeing it, I immediately got the feeling of living nature, systematic and self sustaining.

 

If there's anything pulling my eye from the foreground it's the slightly magenta haze to the lower part of the sky. That seems to tie it in with the foreground color cast. The blue of the sky is fairly dominant so I also wonder if that might not be grabbing for attention, nice as it is. Love the simplicity of the clouds.

 

You've achieved a nice delicacy of color and light in your three recent uploads.

Thanks Fred.

 

You know, you seem to respond to my images exactly as I would more often than not. I think I agree wholeheartedly with everything you wrote. Especially about the clouds – I love those simple clouds and they probably drove the composition.

 

I know this isn't eye-catching, it isn't dramatic, it isn't even all that "interesting" a light or moment. But, I do think it has great balance and harmony and rewards sustained and long-term viewing. It is pleasing and soothing. I feel that it is the sort of image I, personally, would want as a print to live with over time (which is my usual goal). There are lots of high-impact images that I just don't think I could live with over the long-term and it is that final result as a print that I tend to hold in my mind.

 

"Upon seeing it, I immediately got the feeling of living nature, systematic and self sustaining."

 

I can't deny that that sort of thought was present in my mind when visiting Mono Lake. It is the sort of place one might set a North American version of Aeneas' decent into the underworld. It is a place seemingly on the edge of life – with these strange and eerie towers and all the salt-caked and oddly preserved vegetation. Plus its location in the empty back end of California seems too perfect.

 

However, I can't say I was particularly playing with the idea in this image itself (more so in the image titled "branches"). But, it was on my mind the whole time (and, it seems, in lots of other places as well – probably the result of studying the Egyptian afterlife and its texts so much).