Reflections of Beauty

Sorry Jay! I, along with five other members, may have misunderstood your intent for posting. We may have assumed you were looking for well intended suggestions on how your image could be enhanced, refined or perhaps improved. It is a fine piece and I am sure it is very salable and does not need any improving upon. I totally agree with you and Darwin. Myself and the others also offered our praises for the photograph because it is indeed very praise worthy. We should have refrained from any technical criticisms if that is objectionable to you. For me, P.N. is a valuable resource. It has helped me and my desire to attain perfection (I never will of course) because of the many well intentioned suggestions. Many of those comments are technical indeed, such as my horizon appears "wonky" or the foreground looks a shade brighter than it should. Sometimes I heed them, and sometimes I disagree and state my objection. I may have even accused my critics of being snobbish, but I shouldn't have if I did. After all, "snobbish" comments are to be expected on a forum like this. We are all experts and we like to express our expertise. Some of us are showing off and some of us are well meaning and trying to offer our help. Any way it crumbles, however, we are all at times going to dish it out and we are all at times going to take it. All the best!!

amazing light control! and awesome composition! regards 7/7

really great shot !!!

You did not misunderstand my posting...your critique is well taken. It was that I used to strive for technical perfection as well...but as sales of our photograph have grown I find myself asking the question. Does technical perfection really matter? Does shooting at golden hour lead to most publications?

Darwin's article raises a very good point...as a photograph what should we focus on?

Thanks for taking time to critique. -Jay

Jay, I think we can learn alot from one another. I have worked tirelessly over the last year at honing my P.S. skills in the art of blending multiple exposures. My reason for this is not so much the desire to be perfect, yet the desire to arrive at a natural appearing image that displays near perfect tonality, especially images that contain extreme variations of light, i.e. shooting directly into a setting sun while holding detail in the darker areas of the scene. In the interest of this quest, I am quite sure I have overlooked the main ingredient, that being the subject of the photograph. I have even carried out this exercise with images that don't possess a strong subject. After reading Darwin's blog, I have decided to be satisfied with my progress on that front and begin truly looking at what I am photographing. In the meantime, I would always be open to any questions you may have regarding my techniques. You have a keen eye for strong subjects. I see the possibility for improvements regarding tonality; they are not necessary, but they might provide additional satisfaction purely from an individual artist perspective. While Darwin's ideology has merit, there is potential for mediocrity if your only measure of success is the financial gain from your craft. We may be professional photographers to a degree, but we should never give up our amateur status. After all, it is the amateur who has a true love of the art, not just a paycheck. Keep up the good work!

I can't stop looking at it. It is stunning! Is perfection attainable? It was perfection when you saw it, presented to you as a gift from the creator. Can it ever be more perfect than when you viewed it? You're as close to perfection as a human can achieve.

Fabulous work Jay! You did very well creating the HDR. I always find it difficult to render natural looking clouds using HDR. You did an outstanding job capturing, and creating this image.

All the best,

Neil

Gorgeous landscape and an interesting discussion too.

Beautiful work Jay......I've been meaning to look into your iHDR method. It works very well for you. Congratulations

Superb photo Jay. I cannot say how much I love everything about this photo. it is flawless.