a petite peregrination

I think this is a very strong image, and it appeals to me on several different levels. It's simple, direct, and to the point. No massive amounts of Photoshop post-shoot processing, no gimmicks, no "painterly" effects...just the subjects presented on a huge (relatively speaking) white canvas. The photo also reinforces my own thinking that winter can be a time of cleansing and quiet reflection, and I like the way the human-animal bond is presented here. For me, this photo is more about thought, concept, and composition than about a photographer's technical abilities, though there's nothing here to fault those abilities, either. This type of shot may have been done before, but that doesn't negate this photo's power in the slightest. For me, it's simply flawless.

First I really like the composition and very well taken and second the simplicity!

Regards(Bobby).

A wonderful photograph, but the composition is a bit awkward, crammed into the upper left corner. The vignetting is not helpful on a white image. Remove the footprints? That would be a travesty.

Certainly, IMO there is nothing wrong with this composition and the photo "style" is pretty much classic. We not only see many snow scenes like this, but there are many classic street scenes as well that employ this high view and stark or homogenous surrounding. My bottom line for this photo as a whole was that it just didn't really grab me all that much and I think it is just that it is not "loaded". There is something missing from the figure and the horse other than I just don't make any connection with them and the tree. I think it is just one of those intangibles, like the woman on the bench in the last POW, where it is a great element but unrealized as to potential. Possibly it is just that at this size we miss something more revealing that would be apparent in a larger print.

Someone mentioned the vignette earlier not being here nor there. IMO it is too much already. I don't know if it was inherent in the lens or added, but I feel it makes the image a bit too muddy. I like texture in snow, which is always a fine line before it is muddy, as well as containment with edge burns. But snow just goes mucky so fast and here I believe it has. I think the image suffers from these darker edges quite a bit and might come alive a bit more if it were more even out to the edges. I also think that the edge burn is pushing our eyes towards the middle where nothing is happening. Edge burn is to contain and here, with the objects at the edges, it only serves to take our attention away from them.

Finally, I love that tree! Because the figure isn't doing it for me I might clone out everything but the tree and leave it sitting up in the corner by itself!--of course, that is a different shot altogether.

Overall though, nothing particularly wrong with this image except probably that it is a bit overdone with the edge burn.

Excellent immagne winter! Perfect composition!

Good composition. Vignetting adds warmth to this cold winter scene. Sharpening a bit overdone IMO.

i love the title! my first thought was that it looked like the travelers had quite a distance to travel; the composition gives the sense of great isolation; the mostly undisturbed snow and the tree give a since of deafening silence! great impact with simple content. . .fantastic work!!

A little minimalist and void for my taste. Perhaps if I stared at that barren frame long enough it might induce hypnotic effect. I don't get it. I sort of like that naked tree with its branches ready for Spring with no saplings nearby. A survivor, like a lodgepole pine. but not as cute. Could illustrate a Frost poem. Miles before I sleep or something.Yeah, the title someone mentioned. Petit perigrination. Pretty pretentious. Agree, I should not have commented unless I was more interested in the photo. (The critic's curse be on yours truly.) No image should lack devotees, I am thinking. I will get back to it again and see if it blossoms. I promise.
Must add, Cornel has done some powerful scapes that attract my interest. Check this one out:
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5621498

A beautifully simple composition. I fully disagree with eliminating the footprints. I'm not crazy about the vignetting though. I think it needs some dodging there. Overall, it's very well done

Good work!

A very memorable image, well done. I also disagree with the suggestion to remove the footprints. I think this image would work better with the elements in a horizontal rather the diagonal arrangement (obviously it would have to be shot from a different angle). A horizontal line would be quieter, in keeping with the atmosphere. But it's a great image: clean, uncluttered, not a Photoshop gimmick.

eye catching and delightful , pleasing to eyes , like the solitary tree survival against harsh nature, good work regds

This is very nice work, and I certainly would not even consider shopping out the tracks. I do wonder about the shading at each end of the frame, but it is acceptable. Every year one of these simple shots of snow-covered scapes seems to be chosen, and this one is better than most. There is a simple elegance here that makes this shot work, although the strong diagonal is vital to the composition as well.

--Lannie

Gorgeous. I love the stark constrasts, the smplicity, and the feel of forward motion.

I have not bothered adding anything in the past few weeks as this seeming newcomer, John A, has done such a wonderful job of covering the bases in every aspect of them, and in that I agree with most everything he covers and says, there is no need for added input. It's nice to have a master take the time as he does with all of these images (the POW's). And for you folks just starting out, as well as intermediate and advanced photogs, you should go back and take notice of each of his posts, you will be light years ahead in your learning curve by doing so.

And I might add, don't be so quick to say "but I like the way it looks", as we have all said that about our own work too, but that was before learning so much that makes or breaks good art from masters before us.

And, in this case, I agree with him about the heavy burning in the corners (seems heavy to perfectionists, which I can tell he is, as I am also, and a few of you others too), and the need to leave the footprints alone (too austere a result comes to mind), etc..

I also agree, it's not too exciting. Why? Too basic is my guess. And the 'ping pong' composition as I call it, where the eye just bounces from point A to point B and back, without the nice movement a circular or triangular composition would of given you, is boring to the 'eye'. Boring in that it quits wanting to look any longer, wanting to go look at something else.

But as I usually take a hard look at cropping images, to see if I could make it a bit stronger (as in helping keep the eye in longer) in either my work or others (rule number 42, never assume an image is perfect, look to see if a crop can keep the eye in eve longer- J/K on the numbers, make them up) I think this might be able to be helped in that respect. And at the same time help eliminate the ping pong composition. By cropping into the tree, it allows for only one center of interest instead of two.

I dodged the piece so it probably went back to how it looked originally too- as the 'muddiness' is gone.

Other than that I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous New Year.

Here is even a tighter crop, as I forgot rule #51, start TOO tight and work out.
I believe it is getting a bit more mysterious now, not just something you look at and immediately see everything that is going on. I do know I look at it a bit longer, that's the main thing.

Michael, I fear that your perennial preoccupation with tight crops has blinded you in this case to the fact that there is sometimes in nature a glory and freedom in expansiveness, as in certain types of landscapes, seascapes, and snowscapes. In taking that away, you might have taken away the only thing that gave this photo any appeal whatsoever.

You have also pruned that wonderful tree beyond belief. Shame, shame! The burning near the tree had to go, but the tree itself is sacrosanct, untouchable--or at least should have been.

--Lannie

There is very little to add to wha Johan already said.
It is a classical (and more or less very much seen before) pleasant photo with a bit too much mushiness and vignetting, either coming from processing or focusing or the lens itself. Only the author can answer.
Differently from the previous POW, which had lot of potential, I feel I will forget this one fast.

I beleive this image although it is simple in its lay out and contents, still it has its own stile and taste, any one would add anthing here will not be of given this image any interest better but it will drive it worst, some times simplicity of lay out or composition give a very interesting appeal even when there are some essential elements are missing in an image, I wish my English any better to explain how this image is pleasant being a vergen and remains so.

I agree with Landrum regarding the suggested crops. I appreciate that Micheal has put forward his reasoning for the crop suggestions rather than the too common habit of suggesting a crop without offering any explanation for how the crop is intended to improve the image. For myself the tighter crop does make me linger and ponder a bit longer but at too great of an expense. The previously open ended story starts to feel confined and claustrophobic. In the final crop suggestion, the man and the horse no longer have any space within which to travel.