Winter Tracks

Old tracks from a snowmobile crossing a wide field captured my attention,

especially because this was the first day in a week that I had see the sky

(Salt Lake City had the highest smog level at that time in the nation). Your

comments and suggestions are welcomed. Thanks.

The big flat surface, white,  and the diagonal line effectively highlighting the distant, snow covered  mountains. Excellent balanced composition, fit for a b&w image.

Cheers.

Bela

A very nice shot.

Regards,

Rajnish

Beautiful Stephen,

The bright whites of the mountain against the dark black of the sky is very effective and dramatic. And of course the virgin snow all apart from the tracks. The only small niggle was that the horizon caught my attention and seems to be slightly on the slant but thats a minor detail.

Best wishes.

Very nice image - full range of zones and nice detail technically and I like the diagonal line leading your eye into the mountains.  Great job.

Thanks for visiting and for the comments -- I appreciate them.

David, I frequently have a horizon that isn't quite level; it's part of my cock-eyed view of the world, I guess.  I looked at the original at a much larger size, and I finally decided that there is just no way to measure the degree to which this particular photo is level or not level; there are no straight lines anywhere.  The ridge and mountains in the background are receding at an angle, there is a ditch (seen as a line in the snow) that recedes at an angle -- I just can't find a straight line.  So it may be tilted, or it may just appear to be tilted because of the angled receding lines.  I tried the ruler tool on a short section of the background ridge, but it said to rotate this clockwise, which doesn't look right to my eye.  So I'm at a loss.  This is one that needed to be leveled with a bubble level on the tripod, something that I don't have.

Superb scene, composition, clarity, capture and conversion. I like the range of tones and it has very high aesthetic value. Having a dark sky allows the snow covered mountain to be more prominent. There is a dark line in the clouds starting to the right of the snow covered mountain and moving to the right at an upward angle. If it is part of the scene then forget I mentioned anything.

All the best and thanks for your recent comment on my Winter scene which I found useful.

Tony, thanks for stopping by.  I can clearly see the line you mentioned.  Such a straight line in that position would be highly unusual, IMO.  I went back to the original, and it is there as well, and I think (but I'm not positive) that it's something natural happening in the clouds.  In fact, there is more than one line; a second appears below it as one moves to the right, and towards the end I think I can see three parallel lines.  I do know that the B&W conversion and other enhancements have made the line much more prominent here than it is in the original color version.  It remains somewhat of a mystery to me, but I think it really was in the clouds.

Damn Steve this is good ! I am trying really hard to find something wrong, but can't come up with much. I thought I had it with the darkened hills on the right and left, but my eye would not flow through the image the way it does right now if they were lighter. The are two things that distract me a bit. The top of the track about a third of the way up from the bottom.....the area that is white and breaks the upper line of the track, and the dark area in the lower right along the edge. I also might lose the dark spot in about the middle of the sky just to the right of the snow covered mountain. Great image.

Thanks, Paul, I see the areas you are referring to.  This is where your years of doing darkroom printing really shines (pun entirely intended):  you've got a much better eye for B&W photographs than I can ever hope to have.  I could address the consistency of the upper track, but that would involve more photoshop work than I normally do, and it would also likely put a spotlight on my limited PS skills.  The other two areas would be very easy to address.  I'd be more likely to change the lower right corner, but it may be that the very small dark cloud helps by breaking up what would otherwise be a large expanse of white cloud; that may rest on personal preference.  I'm still "concerned" about the straight lines just below that small, dark cloud -- I can't really explain them.  However, I'm now starting to lean toward the idea that they might be shadows, even though I can't see the source or the receiving surface very well.

I don't know the source of the straight lines going down to the middle of the snow covered mountain, but I am not bothered too much by them. They are almost parallel to the distant snow track. That appeals to me....the geometry, but I think I could live without them too. I am guessing that you know the"turn the photo upside down trick" to find distractions in the flow of your image. I sometimes leave a photo taped up-side down in the living room quite awhile looking for distractions that I can eliminate. Great image no matter how you slice it though.

Hello Stephen

An excellent shot in BW. Perfect lines and contrasts.

Thanks for sharing

Kind Regards

Bela Dick

Stephen:  B/W tones and conversion are nice.  I like dark skies for drama.  What were you processes?  The tracks and the white mountain create a tension because the lines of the tracks lead your eyes to the dark mountain at first then  your eye pulls to the snow capped mountain.  I guess it would asking too much to swap the mountains :)  One thing you might consider is to crop the bottom just  a little to get rid of the black shadow on the bottom right.  Great shot.  Alan.

Great work Stephen! The drama you've created with the mono conversion is very effective. I think it would be an interesting experiment to crop off about the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the frame. I realize that would put the horizon about center, but I just feel like it might be more powerful that way. It just feels like the foreground part of the track is overpowering the shot to me. Regardless, great composition and use of lead-in lines, and great mono conversion. Well done!

Stehpen-

Was this an infrared image? Is that how the sky got black? The lead lines of the tracks effectively transport you through the image to the mountains. that are dark which then lead the ey to the snow covered mtns. well seen - greta capture.

-Lynne

Simply magic! Great composition and B&W work.

Best regards,

Alain

Thanks again for the comments.  This was converted using Nik's Silver Efex software.  I don't feel that I have a well-developed eye for B&W, but I just sit back and try to envision how I want the various tones to appear in the final photograph.  Nik gives some good starting points, and the software then allows for small scale adjustments throughout the frame.  So no, it's not an IR shot, just a Nik conversion from color.  I will crop just a tad off the bottom, but I'm reluctant to crop a significant portion.  I intended the track to be quite prominent and grab the viewer's attention, and the track would then lead the viewer's eye to "discover" the rest of the photograph.  At least that was my hope for the composition I chose.

Had the same trouble opening this one.....it goes to Quick Time.   And this one I particularly wanted to copy to my machine so I could look at it closer.  For me, I'm not in the least bothered by any of the above mentioned comments, though I understand what they are saying.  I think it's a really remarkable shot, and you've done extremely well with the B&W tones.  I agree that because the line of mountains may not be running perpendicular to where you're standing, it's hard to tell if it's straight.  Doesn't bother me though.  There is one thing that MAY bother me.....but I can't tell on my small monitor.  The tracks leading back (spectacular, BTW) may be overexposed about 1/2 way back on the left side.  You are the only photographer here on PN whose work I've tried to open and haven't been able to.  I'd love to figure out why.  I wonder if anyone else has that problem.  

A very lovely image indeed. No suggestions!

I absolutely love the texture in this shot.  Congrats on yet another great shot.