Frosty winter shoreline view

This cold winter morning shoreline view with the sun shining on the

frosty trees with temperatures at -25 degrees below zero.

Paul,

Beautiful capture. Take care, Patsy

I like the way you have captured the colour change that the sun causes on the trees, Nice winter scene!

 

Kind Regards

 

Alf

Excellent comp and lighting conditions. I think you should try a black and white conversion of this one; it sets up perfectly for it with the long shadows and tonal range. I'll keep an eye peeled for a posting hopefully. Nice work, Paul. Cheers! Chris

hmmm, while the light and the frost-covered trees are nice, overall I find this photo below average. I think it's because most of the frame is filled with the trees, which are a mumbo-jumbo of branches (as opposed to, for example, a single tree with elegantly shaped crown). You show a little bit of a river or a lake, but not enough to bring interest.

I could see it as a shot with an ultra-wide lens, getting very close to the trees so the viewer can see good detail, having the trees fill maybe a 1/3 of the frame, and the rest showing the landscape. Cheers, Micheal

While I respect Micheal's opinion regarding this photograph, I still believe it is a well-thought out composition and exposure. Personally, I like the diagonal division from LL to UR, and then the shadows streaming out across the lake/pond surface is just wonderful. I still believe that this would make an excellent black and white. You could get those branches just glowing with light. I think I'd clone out the house/barn in the BG right too. Keep shooting these winter landscapes, Paul. Cheers! Chris

to hopefully clarify my comments above. When I look at a photo, I think it should tell me a story; whether it's a fun photo with a silly story, a documentary photo with a simple story of presenting the subject (such as a house, or a concert performance), or a landscape photo telling a story of the landscape. To my taste your photo doesn't say much. Yes, the light is nice; yes, the frost-covered trees are nice; but both these thumbs-up features don't add up to a story. What would tell a story would be, for example, if you showed more of the landscape - your photo shows a tiny stretch of land from which I cannot tell anything. In your case what could tell me, the viewer, more about the landscape is, if you changed the angle of the shot to include more of the surrounding landscape. When I look at this photo I find a big collection of branches covered with frost, that even though nice due to the frost-covering, look like a big mess. I've seen photos of frost/ice/snow covered trees that look very pretty even though they don't show much of the surrounding land, because the tree(s) itself looks pretty and thus can stand on its own. In your case the trees don't look pretty to my eyes, because, as I already mentioned, they are a hodge-podge of branches with no elegance, no sense of a cohesive shape. In my comments above I mentioned that using an ultra-wide lens would allow getting very close to the trees (the benefit would be seeing more detail), while including a lot more of the surrounding landscape. As an example of a winter picture that tells a good story (at least to me) see this: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5650783

It tells a story of a lonely tree formed by the prevailing winds in an expanse of a nice countryside. I know you didn't have the luxury of such a nice scenery, and I do think you were onto a right think. I just think the perspective you chose was not the best.

My saying "below average" just means below the average of what I've seen on Pnet so far...yes, it is subjective...such is a fate of art. I mean all of this as a positive, respectful feedback. Cheers, Micheal

Michael, thank you for the deeper insight, very valuable information to see the big picture and not just parts of it to make a overall great photo. I send you a e-mail in greater detail, but thanks again, I truely get what you mean now, Thanks.