Springtime on Lake Superior

Having traveled around the Great Lakes in the dead of winter, I can really appreciate this photograph, and what the photographer might have experienced while making it. And as anyone who's been up there at this time of year knows, spring time around the Great Lakes is often everything but spring-like!

I can sort of agree that this might work better as a horizontal rather than a vertical, but it is the mood and feeling the photo evokes that's important to me in this case. I can almost feel the cold and wind, and hear the water against the rocks here. Even the clouds look like ice.

The photo captures the feel of the place, so in that respect, it succeeds very well, in my opinion.

Doug seems to be right with the crop issue; on other hand I don't think with a 100mm lens there were too many options with composing the frame. Although it gives a good magnification to the fierce wave crash, this angle frankly has compressed the perspective into the single plantitude.

 

Thinking of strengths of the picture, I want to emphasie what Raven has said - IT IS NARNIA. There really is a feel of magic, almost pushing us to wait for a miracle. Great colours. It's hard believe I see the Lake Superior--it is incredibly enchanting. A few days spent over Thunder Bay, Canada, in the winter didn't seem for me to appear that great. You got a briliant eye, and despite of fact that we can argue on this picture, it's a real Photo of the Week.

 

Alibek

The above feeling that the image is too tightly cropped is correct in my view as well. I think we need more on the left, top and bottom as well, and not a whole lot, either. I would stick to the vertical as a personal preferance -- Verticals appeal to me.

 

One thing that could improve this already fabulous shot would be adding a bit more contrast and saturation. Again, not a lot, but enough to give it a dab more punch.

 

I really enjoyed looking over your portfolio. Everyone should! Lots of lessons there on how to make landscapes. Congratulations, neighbor on being selected by the elves.

 

Willie the Cropper

I like Jim Adams' comment about what the photographer must have gone through while making this photo. Looking at the details section, Brett mentions 50+ mph winds. I wonder if he had to push his slide film a stop to achieve a higher shutter speed, both to catch the wave action and to keep the camera shake in the wind from showing up. Landscape photography poses interesting challenges, as exemplified in both this week's and last week's POW (this week: cold and wind, last week: remote location).

 

I also noticed that this photo has been viewed almost 109,000 times! Clearly it has an appeal, and I think it is that magical, Narnia quality. I've been to similar areas along Lake Superior, and the trees along the shoreline tend to be stunted in their growth, but they're still over 5 or 6 meters high, if memory serves.

I am very impressed with the visual power of this work. It does look like a frame from

some fantasy movie (Narnia, yes). Doug, I also love the color palette, the beige shading of

the wave that chrushes on the rocks is so beautiful against the gray and the blue (my

monitor is not all that great so I could say something wrong here...). However there are a

few things that bother me, wich are basically the same you guys have been talking about:

1) no sense of scale, that cliff could be 10 feet tall as far as I can see. Not that this is so

important, but... 2) I am not convinced the vertical format is the right choice here, even

though I would have had to be there in order to make a judgement about it. I would love

to see where that wave is coming from. 3) The white cloud behind the trees mixes up with

the snow and the ice and confuses my eye a little bit. What I really like about this picture,

however, is the fact that it captures a very powerful, unique and totally genuine event and I

think that is so important in photography. Best regards to everybody.

I can't figure out the measurement of the cliff and the waves.

Seems to me this is a quite high cliff. Isn't it?

I had to look at it for a long time because at first look its all confused. The tones on the contrary, are monotone and almost unreal and it gives a sense of fairy-tale. Maybe I would add a coach and a woman wearing the dark purple coat that would be standing near the edge, just to catch the sense of scaling.

It is very magical photo!

I really like the subject and complexity of ice, water and rock. The crop would work better for me if the horizon were level. I'm probably more particular than most regarding horizon lines though. It's a very 'cool' shot though. :)

Brett, where on Superior is this? Kind of reminds me of Presque Isle up in Marquette, MI (used to live in Marquette).

 

Nice shot though!

Thanks everyone for your kind and thoughtful comments on this image! The crop is undeniably a bit tight, which is a direct result of having only 100mm and 50mm lenses to choose from at the time and no room to back up or maneuver on the opposite cliff. That cliff is probably 30 feet high, and the trees are probably close to 15 feet tall. That little pine tree in the upper left corner is the same size as me. And that "cloud" behind the trees at the top is actually a wave crashing over the opposite side of the cliff. I pushed Provia 100 a stop to pick up extra shutter speed, both to freeze the crashing waves and to reduce photographer shake (as opposed to camera shake) in the incredibly strong winds. During some gusts on the exposed cliff I was barely able to stand up.

 

I took half a dozen shots from here and this was definitely the best combination of composition and waves. Horizontal shots with the 100mm were far too tight, revealing only the frozen flora on top of the cliff. Horizontal and vertical shots with the 50mm were not tight enough in my estimation and included too much uninteresting space. I?ve attached a cropped 50mm vertical image to illustrate.

 

Thanks again to the photo.net community for looking and sharing your thoughts!

Sorry, here's a link to the wider crop. And these images were taken at the outlet of the Baptism River into Lake Superior in Tettegouche State Park in Minnesota.

An enchanting frozen world. The juxtaposition of the waves motion makes it all the more interesting

Apologies for not reading the whole discussion, I just want to leave my compliments.

 

I find this photo aesthetically pleasing, well composed and well exposed - but most of all energising and inspiring.

 

You can see the energy!

 

Nature at it's best ...

 

A very well executed photo - it really does make me wish I was there ... Congratulations.

ps I don't like the wider crop - I prefer Brett's original. Sorry Analytical Guys. The portrait tighter crop contains (to you may be 'constrains') all that action and energy ... perfect for my eyes :)

In the original version doesn't anyone see that lovely repetition of the cloud, in the spray? So well positioned, I wouldn't change it for love or money.

I, for one, appreciate Brett's explanation of how he framed and made the shot, plus the tech details. It increases my regard for both the photographer and the photograph.

Ofcourse it is better the original vertical composition.

The second one is explaining the problem scaling. Few of us had a problem with solving the mistery of a measure.

 

Now when I can compare I have a clear vision of an image. But the waves at foreground looks like a clouds.

 

I wonder, what was the wind speed.

Brett, the tight crop doesn't matter. The POW image has an undeniable power and a strong

"essence" that your second crop doesn't have. I spent a couple of days observing it and I

appreciated it more and more. Thank you for showing where the waves where coming

from ;-) and congratulations!

I guess I should mention something that has not been touched upon. This is the first thought I had: what an incredible mixture of visual texture. I think that this combination of things going on, of contadicting scale measures, of waves, trees, ice and "clouds" is what makes this picture interesting. You must pause for a second and examine it's elements before you can understand this photograph. It's what I call the "hard to get" version of a photograph.

The Elves are correct, simplemente bellisima foto.... impressivearts.com

Over exposed by up to two stops. That would get the wave spray correctly exposed, and make darker the rest of the pix, for better balance in the shot. The white cumulus cloud behind the cliff detracts.

This is a great picture, when i look at it, it gives an impression of anger, hostility and the ruthlessness of winter and nature. Great snapshot Brett.