Icy Branch

C and C appreciated. Thanks

Alan

Wow! Love this photo. Especially love the soft flowing water in the background. Nice balance to the composition with the icicles to the right of the photo and the branch moving out of the top left corner. Beautiful shot.

Thanks Kathleen for you comments.  Alan

An incredible image of light in the icicles with a great background.

Thank you Alan for your comments on Tioman falls 2. I will bear them in mind when next attempting to capture a similar image.

Regards and have a good day

Bob

Refreshing thought on a hot 3 July.  One thing I used to really like with my old (foolishly sold eons ago) RB67 was it's close focusing abilities that you have well demonstrated here.  A combination of a subject with inherently weak colour, with low contrast light, and, I'll bet a low saturation low contrast film (portra NC?)  has resulted in a shot with little 'snap', though I'll bet it's accurately depicted.  I'm not sure I can offer an 'improvement' solution as increasing the contrast messes with the delicate highlights in the water.  A 10-15 % increase in saturation gets it heading in the right direction (for me) but too heavy a hand in that department produces an 'unreal' result.   Perhaps it's best left undisturbed.  Your call!  Best, LM.

Len:  Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.  I appreciate them because I like the composition and color in your photos. Actually the film was Ektar 25 negative type (no longer produced by Kodak) taken about 15 years ago when my Mamiya RB67 was worth something.  I still have mine and have been starting to use it again as it's not worth it to sell for what you get for these cameras and lenses nowadays.  You probably sold yours at the right time.  I'm slowly getting back into it since scanning these old slides.  I find that although it's heavy to lug around, and I have to convince myself to take it out, it really slows my shots down, allowing me to compose more deliberatively.  I think that process improves my photography.

The saturation is an good suggestion.  Since it's negative film, I can't really compare to see what was on the film.  But I tried your suggestion and added 15%.  I find that added color usually seems better although I usually pull back because I don't want my pictures liked because of color eye candy but for other reasons.  In any case, I found for my liking,  that's too much for this shot.  As I recall the mood, I was standing in ankle high water in a frigid stream with my tripod there in the cold water with me.  It was really cold, well obviously, the icicles shows that.  But also the mood was cold, a very bleak winter day.  Adding saturation to the picture adds too much warmth to the limb and dead leaves in the background.  That warm feeling just didn't jive with the mood as I recall it.  But these things are always a close call and a little more saturation would work too.  B/W may work also.  Thanks again.  Alan. 

Well, don't I feel silly.  I've mistaken a high contrast high saturation film for Portra NC which is at the other end of the scale.  I'll have to get my monitor adjusted, or my eyes, or both!  :-)  Truth is that a heavy hand in PhotoShop can do more to ruin a photo than a light one.  Colour and saturation are very subjective elements and too much manipulation of them can easily take an OK image and turn it into a disaster.  And sometimes the advice you get is worth what you are paying for it.  :-) Best LM.

Len:  I always value your advice.  Thanks.  Alan.

Fabulous.  So sharp and clear.  Impressive.  Best regards,

grande risultato,complimenti !

Fabulous image and the ice overcomes any 'chill' to the overall image. I have a whole folder on ice.

Brrrr I'm cold just looking at this beautiful wintery shot !

lovely detail !

Warm regards,

Isabelle

Alan, I like this photo because of the mood. It is still, but on the other hand there is a movement. Regards Marco Overdiep

I like this photo very much!

The blur motion on the background and the detailed subject!
Very good!!
Simone 

Though I wouldn't necessarily want a reminder of cold/ice/snow hanging on my wall (  :-), this image would be beautiful framed and hanging on the wall.  The tones are wonderful, and the DOF is outstanding, bringing out the ice in the forefront.  I'm not sure without seeing it, but I might even be tempted to burn the tree branch to darken it so those wonderful ice formations stand out even more.  Thanks for your comment in the forum!