Old Power Line At Silver Comet Trail

This was taken along the Silver Comet Trail which used to be the old

railroad tracks that ran through the area. It has now been converted

into a walking/biking, etc. paved trail. It will eventually, if not

already go to the Alabama state line, where Alabama has plans to pave

the trail on into Birmingham. Maybe I will ride from Atlanta to

Birmingham when I know it is finished. Right! LOL! Anyway, this is

one of the old power lines that did not have to be removed, and I

thought it would be neat to see if I could get a decent shot of it.

Any ideas on how to make these shots work? Anything helps. Thanks.

The lighting seems rather flat. I'd try it at different times of the day and look at a day after moisture too to bring our the colors.

This can work as a pattern shot, but right now it's very contrasty, leaving the eye to follow a trail of highlights around the frame. I think the best thing is to try this with lower, more even light. If you can compose to bring out the pattern and the camo-like effect, the shot could succeed nicely. Hope that's worthwhile. Enjoy.

This is a most interesting shot. It's almost excellent, but there's something not quite right about it. My first thought was to fix the fact that the object of interest was centered, but cropping to get the power pole off center seemed to make it worse. I always felt like more forest was needed.

 

This is an abstract image, but even there, something is just a little off. Is it too flat? To contrasty? There's a lot to work with here - more than one image could come out of it - and I think it will be worth the effort. Here's my best shot at it. I cropped closer, increased contrast, sharpened, and desaturated yellow.

I knew exactly the area this picture was taken before I read your location fields. I lived in Atlanta many years and there is no mistaken the Kudzu vines.

interesting.

Well Lisa, I tried to play with the image a bit to see if i could do something to improve it. I adjusted the levels a bit and that helped slightly, but nothing significant. Overall, the image is just a bit too busy and is a bit harsh on my eyes. These comments dont mean to much, since i wasnt able to help at all. Do these vines gain more color or leaves in the warmer seasons? If so, you might want to consider taking another photo then. I do believe that there is potential here. By the way, how is your shoulder doing? Feeling better I hope.

 

Sorry I couldnt be of more help, Tony

Lisa: Tell me the truth! Is this in Jim's area at all. He denies there are kudzu there!

 

I think Anthony may be correct. The old power pole may stand out better when the greenery is just budding in the spring. Soon after that it will be buried in vegetation so it may take watching carefully. It's a good idea that bears development. The image, at present, needs some differentiation to separate the pole from the vines and trees.

Fred, I am going to be honest. Jim has to be pulling a fast one on you. I live about 2.5 hours from him, and going from Atlanta to Huntsville I tend to see more kudzu the further west I go. LOL! It is annoying stuff, and it isn't found everywhere, but you will find it in places like where this photo was taken.

 

As for waiting for warmer weather to get some greenery into the picture could prove to be a little difficult at this particular location. Most of the trees are dead, and the vines, too. Chances of getting much greenery in is pretty slim. I will have to cruise the trail and look for a better area that may still have some of the old powerlines up with signs of life amongst all the foliage. I think it can be a really cool shot. Just my opinion though.

This is an interesting image. Yes, it is a bit too busy. It does have an abstract look and feel. I have tried to use some PS filters to see if I could enhance this image but no luck.

I'm kind of happy to see this shot of yours. As you will see, my rating is still slightly below average, but this is the shot I like best in the folder. What's more important maybe, is that I feel this image is the most artistic shot in it.

Whereas most of the other images are simple & more or less successful representations of the ordinary, this image is a representation of something far less ordinary that most of us would not even consider taking a picture of. As Marshall said above, this is a pattern shot.

What is missing ? The present image has a hihly complex subject... I would almost say TOO complex. The potographer's task is necessarily here to simplify the picture without losing any vital information.

What's vital here ? 1) The poles... They are the structure of this image, since they offer the only thicker lines in the frame. These poles have therefore to be identified as the main lines of this image. All the other lines are secondary lines - less important. 2) What is vital is also to keep SOME of the complexity here, because complexity is in fact the subject.

Now comes the time to decide what to do. I would personally consider that a lot less of secondary lines is in fact necessary to support the concept of complexity. My decision would therefore be to use the main structure to its fullest and to minimize the amount of the secondary lines. Meaning: crop !

Let's imagine cropping left and right, keeping the center in a perfect square... The image will then be stronger because the existing structure of this image will then be firmly "held" by the edges of the image.

At this stage, that is all I can say about composition improvement, but when you were there, you may have wanted to try to zoom in farther. I wouldn't be surprised that a tighter close-up would deliver the same message while emphasizing pleasant details.

Marshall then said that the contrast seemed to high and the light too harsh here. Could be, but I'm not sure about that. I would personally be affraid that less contrast would create more confusion.

Overall, you have got something worth shooting here, and it would maybe take a longer lens and 20 minutes or even more looking for the perfect composition, in order to make this work at best graphically. Do not under-estimate the subject, as it is hell of a work to pull a fantastic shot out of such a dense pattern. You would be looking for a way to capture what art books call "unity in diversity" - a key principle in composition.

It would be easy to get unity here, since all the corners of the frame look basically the same, but it will be difficult to find diversity. Often, in color photography, colors create diversity, but sometimes disrupt unity. Often enough colors can help in breaking the mnotony of an image at least, but here, colors are actually all the same and would in fact bring in monotony, and make it very difficult to result in anything else than a boring shot... What's different from the rest here is the poles, but they are rigid, and maybe too rigid to create a rythm on their in the frame... So, the job will be to look at each small area and compare it with the next... Not a small task ! :-)

I hope this will be somehow helpful and I wish you all the best for your future attempts. Regards.