the wild of east java The Wild of East Java#2

Somebody earlier up suggested cropping the building at the top - PLEASE DON'T TOUCH IT!!! I really feel the height and position of the camera, combined with foreground and middle subjects give this picture a massive appeal with regard to distance and dimension. There are many more characteristics of the photo which I admire, including the dusty atmosphere, action and of course technical handling such as exposure and composition.

To be honest, this photo took my breath away. It had a strong impact, and not a temporary one! Congrats and well done Kenvin.

Very well done. Lots to look at but not too busy. I think the people and horses along with the light areas (dust or fog) draw some lines that capture attention and lead you through the photo.

I love how the image just draws your eye in. What atmosphere. I hate to be a bandwagoner, but boy this is magnificent.

 

Good job!

To me the building near the top makes the picture. It's what gives it a sense of place.

 

Carsten

 

http://www.cabophoto.com/

This image is the best I have seen in a long while - stunning - do not change a thing!

There is a lot to like in this photo. The layers of people and overall depth immediately grabbed my attention. Plus the atmosphere and light . Wow! It's as dramatic as a good shot from an epic movie... superb! Congrats on POW and excellent choice. -Greg-

Absolutely incredible!!! Are those dust trails really natural as the unmanipulated box suggests? Either way this really captures the mood.

 

chris

Surreal....out of the movies....killer shot.

Where exactly on Mt. Bromo is this? The structure on the horizon (a temple?) looks to be enormous based on the perspective cues...

 

If the far background has not been added, this is an extraordinary picture. But even without it, it would be quite a pic...

 

Well done!

Oh, I see now... having examined the other pictures in the portfolio. I was mislead by the effect of dust and mist, and the size of the landscaped small trees near the pavilion(?) structure.

 

This is a truly great picture Kenvin. Congratulations. Automatic National Geographic material, I would bet. If not, a sure candidate for any of a number of high quality travel magazines...

wahhh mantab Ken..., bisa masuk jadi photo of the week niih.. Hiks, sayang waktu itu gw nggak sempat ikutan kesana

Couldn't have said it better myself[bg]!

Wonderful use of perspective and what Turner called "evanescence". I'm not sure it isn't better than a lot of the stuff in Geographic.

Bonsai wahine tagalog mobutu knicknack!

And please don't take offense. I'm from New Jersey. We don't have a native language.

Les

Those who know me know that I can sometimes be afflicted with the written equivalent of "verbal diarrhea" in my critiques. No need here. This is simply one of the best documentary style shots I have ever seen. Certainly in my top handful on PN (right up there with Tony Dummett's "Speaker's Corner" and David Julian's "Dreams" photographs... I hope I have accurately remembered the titles of those photos).

Fantastic photo and serie! Except for #4, all are excellent compositions. I really liked this one and it's a perfect "Photo of the week", but now that I saw the b&w shots of this scenes and its unique light I'm truely amazed by the two last uploads. Great work!

dream-like quality to this. Congrats

I'm with the rest of the crowd - well done! I like the way the lines flow in this, with the trail of men & horses, leading your eyes to the very top. Great depth and atmosphere.

very nice picture. not sure i like the building at the top. i think its distracting and takes away from the otherwise ethereal quality of the picture. at first i thought this was shot maybe in afghanistan/pakistan, looks very remote and tribal. then when you see the building, it looks like much more accessible, perhaps even a tourist pavillion. i think having the building in the picture is the difference between a nice picture and a 'timeless' picture. i've included two alternatae crops here for discussion. keep in mind that had the photographer composed the image differently when he shot it (ie: without the building), it would look different than merely cropping it after. that said, this is a very nice picture, and this is purley meant as constructive criticism and a point of discussion!

crop #2

lets try that again....

The building at the top is one of the features that makes this photo work for me. It gives a sense of place (even if you don't know exactly *what* place) and adds to the grand sense of scale and depth. I love the trail of ppl throughought the photo, and the mood created by the dust. You have a real stunner here! Very nicely seen and done.

This is a piece of art, do not crop or do anything. Better than this is not possible.

Amaizing.....

VERY nice. Great viewpoint, and the people are very nicely

balancing each other in the frame, for a pretty perfect

composition.

 

This being said, I would like to point out one thing and to ask a

question as well:

 

1) Although places like this hardly exist in most parts of the

world, this part of Indonésia is very famous for such scenes,

meaning that such a picture is nothing really new nor really

difficult to find in the part of theworld where it was taken. There

are in fact countless images very similar to this one in stock

agencies in Asia and all over the world. I must say, nevertheless,

that this one ranks among the very best I have seen of this area.

 

2) The question I would like to ask is motivated by an

observation... Clouds among the hills are something common in

this region, but the white area in the foreground SEEMS quite

artificial to me. I saw that this picture was not manipulated and

have no reason to doubt thephotographer. I would like to ask

whether any masking, dodging & burning, or strong contrast

adjustment took place in the foreground or overall. Such "minor

manipulations" are anyway not classified as "manipulations" by

photo.net as far as I understand it: that's why I'm asking this. It is

of course possible that this scene would not have been

manipulated at all, but the foreground is quite strange to my eye -

particularly around the nearest man and on the rock at right.

 

No matter what, this is certainly a very beautiful photo. As for this

roof in the background, it is what it is, and I would certainly not

want to crop. A crop would limit the depth of the photo, and a crop

would also greatly limit the journalistic and even the emotional

value of the picture. As I see it, this roof somehow appears to our

imagination as the aim of these people's journey - even though it

might not be -: in other words, it seems to be their destination,

and I like that. Regards.

Very nice work. Comments to the point have been made, I will not repeat them. As to what Marc pointed out, there is also extra whiteness in left middle part where there is a horseman or something. I do not know whether this means anything pertaining to what Marc has asked about.

Thanks. The white areas are indeed elsewhere in the picture,

and they are normal: flying dust + light in a cloudy atmosphere

does this. To be specific, what made me raise my question

above israther the way the white area ENDS - its edges,

especially on the foreground rock at right. That's the only thing

that looks a bit artificial to me - not the fact that there's dust flying

per se. Regards.

Thanks for all great suggestion and comments in this discussion forum, I would love to tell the behind the scenes, this photo was taken about 200m from top of Bromo mountain, usually the tourist ride horse go to the top. And the middle of sand dunes have Hinduism temple, that become background of this photo.

Photo was taken in the morning around 7 AM, around that mountain still covered fog and flying dust. I just arrange the level and contrast , no burning dogging work in PS. The dust and fog are real. The rock at right foreground have garbage on it that it was eliminated using clone stamp tool in PS.

I really appreaciate for all of you who suggest me to crop the temple at the top, but I think the temple make this photo perfect for me.

Regards Kenvin Pinardy

I think the colors of this photo not natural, because I was there also at the same morning the same time only at different spot. The colors there at that time should be warmer and yellowish because the sun was just rising. I think the white balance of the camera setting and auto levelling with Photoshop contributed this unnatural looking colors.