Phantom of the night no. 2

The snow-laden trees were lit by a simple outdoor light. After a few shots

with a clean filter on my lens and my disinterest in the results, I applied

condensation to much of the filter surface and shot this one through it.

Your comments would be appreciated. Thanks for visiting.

I appreciate and applaud your creativity in trying out new things. However, my eye wanders all over the image and finds nowhere to rest. Also, the horizon going right through the middle is a no-no. So this doesn't work for me.

-Lynne

Hi, Lynne,

I appreciate your comment. My aim was in fact to provide an obscured view of a simple snow-laden apple tree and not to focus on anything too major to be called subject. It is a sort of ambiance image and meant more as an approach to fantasy and enigma than anything else. This is a route I am presently following with other images, so I am interested in the perception of others and am also interested to see where it leads me. The "horizon" is actually not seen at night, as beyond the line of house lights across the river are the foothills of a mountain chain that remains invisible at night.

If you are intersted in this approach, you might want to check this one out:

 http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=11572204

The horizon in this case is not really what you might know is there beyond what we can see in the photo but is, photographically speaking, what we can see as the horizon in the photo. And even that, assuming we can refer to the lights in the distance as the virtual horizon here, is not actually centered at all. Even if it turned out to be centered, I wouldn't find that a No-No or a problem except in the strict adherence to a rule which was likely more of a guideline and was not meant to apply to every photo.

A very creative dalliance, if I may. It has a sense of the abstract, plays well with light and glow, seems eminently photographic, handles the whites quite nicely, and has an impressionistic feel about it, but with an almost magical sense of imagination.

The layers of light work very well. There's life here and the light, as so often in photos, plays a key role.

Well done!!

Regards,

Mário

Mario, thank you. Salutations.

Fred, your critique is much appreciated, and as in other cases in this portfolio and elsewhere, both intelligent and sensitive (I guess the two are synonymous). One can always learn more about, or reflect more on, one's approach and where to go with it by having the luxury of good critiques. The glow was an objective (thanks to the feedback of the digital camera playback) and what I might try now do is to embody it within some more interesting subject matter, possibly with human presence.  Thanks for reviewing this image.