The long walk home

Beautiful atmospher and great composition. Well done.

Looks like painting...!!!

Wonderful image ... !! Congrats

beautiful work!

AN excellent & extra ordinary high key photograph presenting very good activity. By composition,exposure and post production a complete snap.

Excellent minimalistic image...brilliant composition...the color of the lonely tree at the background of the human element in red stands out very well...the effect of the snowy tree and the background created magical efeect...very impressive...7...my best

Excellent work of composition and postproduction

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• This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest.
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Personally, not at all fond of the selective colour, but otherwise an excellent representation of a foggy, moody winter's day.

Interesting. I feel the same as Bob, but I like the use of the selective color. A good eye-catching composition. Before I read the maker's name, I thought it was Tim Holte's work. Though he mostly uses a red umbrella. I like it as a POW. Congrats

I'm also generally not fond of selective color, but this works pretty well due to the wintery situation. My only problems with this image are compositional. The tree is to the right of center and the red-coated figure pulls the picture even more to the right. The space to the left of the tree is effectively empty (just a couple of trees way off in the distance). Shifting the composition to the right would have improved this. I'd also like to see the apparent horizon leveled, which I think would add to the elemental simplicity of the image. I realize that it may be that the ground isn't actually quite level here, but the division between land and sky is pretty much a perfectly straight line and it's very close to level, so regardless of the actual geography I think I would have just leveled it.

Solitary trees, especially those without their leaves in the dead of winter, have always been a favorite subject of mine, probably manifesting my psyche's impression of the realities of living. This tree has great form, and the tree alone would have made a great photo (IMO, of course). Adding a human element has a very significant effect on most such photos, and I've never been able to fully understand the reasons for this other than we are naturally and understandably very self-centered creatures, and a photograph with one of us in it just makes it more personally relevant.

Photographs that capture my attention include those with contrasting elements. Here the important contrast is between two living beings, one a large, immobile tree and the other a single person walking by. Both are experiencing and enduring the same relatively harsh environmental conditions, one by becoming dormant and the other by adding protective layers of clothing. I think some viewers will easily identify with these solitary beings in this stark setting, and those viewers don't have to dig very deep to find a story in the photograph that will resonate with them. In the end, life can be a lonely struggle, but there is also an element of beauty in that struggle. I find all of that very well expressed in the POW.

Regarding the details, I don't know for sure that this photograph is one of selective color. I'm with those who are not fans of that technique, but I'm not sure that it has been applied here. Trees with snow and gray skies are pretty much black and white landscapes, and a person wearing a red coat is certainly going to stand out in a dramatic way. I can see some hints of color on the tree, in the canopy, and on the ground, and those hints make me think this may be a full-color photograph. The fact that person is wearing a red coat further enhances the contrast with the tree in this winter landscape. While the color difference is the most immediately obvious contrast, to my eye it's not the most significant difference; I think that just reflects my background as a biologist, and not everyone will have that perspective (I feel fortunate to have it).

Regarding the crop and placement of the tree, if the left edge is moved to the right, it will be cutting through a background tree, and if the left edge is moved to the space between those background trees, it will be very close to the main tree. I find that the background trees and the left-leading trail of leaves on the ground help to balance the composition. Personally, I prefer that kind of balance rather than moving of the tree closer to the physical center by cropping. Fortunately, this is nature rather than architecture, and balance can be achieved in more than one way.

I'm completely taken by this photograph -- I think it's a wonderfully composed expression.

I was a bit surprised when I went through B Read's photostream and found this image to be so singular and out of character with the rest of the work, it makes me ask the question how or why did it come about--or maybe why is it included. It just seems so out of place with the other work's sensibilities.

Anyway, I certainly do feel a weight to the right of this image. This is compounded both by mass and by color and yet to remove the open space on the left would certainly defeat the sense of "The long walk home".

Unfortunately, the electrical storms over the weekend blew out my good monitor's power source and so I am relying on my laptop, which is good but not perfect, but my sense is that there has been some desaturation at least in this this image. I haven't seen such a neutral tree or setting before. Whether there has been any selective color applied is sort of moot to me, the image either works or it doesn't.

For me, the image is alright and, as I have said many times before, seems to meet its purpose. I am not carried away with this image or the presentation, maybe it is just too illustrative or ordinary for my tastes. It isn't that I don't think it is a well done image for what it is, it just doesn't move me as a piece of art--not enough depth (conceptually) for me.

Nice photo, but curious about its inclusion with the other work.

Didnt we see something like this before? A red bus in a snowy landscape in Washington DC? More recently there was a yellow figure in a reflected in a water flooded landscape. yada yada yada. --pretty consistent with what the Elves naturally gravitate towards.
Catchy eye-candy. As nice as it is on the surface, it is not substantial enough for it to hold my attention.

Im glad the Elves brought my attention to his image. In my opinion it is a nicely balanced composition, horizon is well placed, the person dressed in red counterbalance the weight of the tree, the DOF and desaturation is exquisite and adds to the "in dream like" effect. I like it very much. Congrats B Read.

wonderful

A beautiful picture. I think, however, that the composition might have been improved slightly if you'd have waited until the person clad in red would've been just under the "gap" in the branches (which is just in front of the person as it is right now). I think it would lend a certain symmetry to the whole thing :-) That, however, is only my own humble opinion.

Nice but it has been done before and better.

Very nice atmosphere and composition. Thanks Elves for this beautiful FOW.

Great art but doesn't look the least bit like a believable photograph, and no information on how it was made, so no way for anyone to give a meaningful critique.

Hey Elves. Winter in May? Give us a break!

As I look at this image more closely, I see an uncomfortable tilt to the right. Also, at second glance, I hate the color. This baby couldn't help it off-white.

In truth, this is a boring picture. Its composition is also mediocre.

Man, every week it is basically the same old pictorialist rubbish. This forum is supposed to generate discussion. But if we get the same kind of photo every week the discussion is going to be unvaried and predictable.