Foggy November Night

Жery good light and composition.

Very good, I like it

The darkness around the top and sides focuses your attention to the lighted cobblestones and into the image. I like it very much. 

Excellent composition, very good night exposure, a beautiful b&w picture.

Happy New Year.

Very good light management. Very nice composition. Great capture Michael.

An Amazing image with perfect light ....... Bravo

Wonderful and very intriguing image. I like it a lot. Looks a bit like it is wrapped in plastic.

Great art. The handling of the light is sublime.

Tommy

Excellent work!(6)

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Pictorialist without the mawkish sentimentality that so often marks that sort of photography. Good use of the fog with aerial perspective.
Sulka has lots of nice shots of foggy days in his portfolio, but the monochrome effect of this one seems particularly effective to me.

Michael, this is a very well-done image with several, in my subjective mind, limitations. First of all, congrats on being chosen for POW. I always think it's very complimentary on being chosen whether we like the image or not. Regarding the image, I like the mood, the color, the subtle details, and the lighting except for the light in the foreground which I feel is a bit harsh. I would experiment with this light and perhaps try it as a hidden light source by cropping in on it and retaining the light that it emits. While cropping that, I'd suggest trying to crop a bit more on top and the right side. I would love to see more of the cobblestone street. It's a lovely detail that cries for more attention. There is also an unfortunate reflection on the left side, I think it's part of a gate that I find very distracting and would probably simply retouch out. My bottom line: very nice photograph but it needs some finessing.

I all ready commented on this photograph a wile ago, but one more time, it is a great image, deserved to be the POW.

Okay, I like it. Why? The mood. The composition. The subtle sepia tone. I am also partial to foggy nights. Not exactly a critique, but I think I have just about covered all the reasons to like this photo.

Okay, I like it. Why? The mood. The composition. The subtle sepia tone. I am also partial to foggy nights. Not exactly a critique, but I think I have just about covered all the reasons to like this photo.

It's got the key component of photography completely right: light. Those rays of light just make this photo.
No cropping advice here, to me the composition works as it is. The tree, the cobblestones just set the right atmosphere. The fog adding this sense of depth, the contrast. It's all highly effective, sets a great atmosphere. And, darn, that light....

Initially I also thought that maybe the addition of one person in this photo (maybe not as specific as Barry puts it, but well, somebody) might make it a more appealing image, or a more story-telling picture (a theme like loneliness, harsh life... or a spooky presence, something like that). But actually even there: no need. The photographer is impressively alone with this scene, isolated by fog in radiating light. There is plenty clue for a story there. At least, for my imagination there is.

A scene, that we all have seen before and maybe even shot, but often failed.
Here, the shot by Michael, has all the elements to make a great impression: with the paved wet road directing us into the dark nothingness of the forest by night; the railings of human presents behind safely locked doors to the left; and the light of the three lampposts making the road visible, but failing to light up the dark forest around.
All the elements are there for the viewer to feel uncomfortable pursuing the invitation to advance into the scene. If one looks carefully, one actually see the contours of a werewolf deep in the forest to the right of the road (don't see the full moon, though !).
This being said, I see also the weakness of the photo. The high contrast shadows of the light from the first lamppost seems to take over the attention from the mist and qualities of the light nearer the road, that provides the, for me, central elements and quality of the scene.
Concerning, the mentioned lack of human presence, I don't get it. I don't need it. Human presence is by definition there all over, by us looking at it.

Atmospheric capture as for Christmas card, but it need life and movement.

I feel the whole image has everything in place for mood and atmosphere. The strength of this image lies in the rays of light illuminating perfectly everything around it. I see absolutely nothing that needs altering or improving except for one minor but actually overwhelming interference, and that is the tiny white illumination on that gate, personally I would have blacked it out. The main thing that attracts me is the illumination of the leaves and the wonderful way in which you have conceived the photo by keeping the light of the lamp behind the branch, that makes this image possible of course. For me there are no imperfections here. The sheer purpose of the image is to delight, and it does that very well.

Fun picture. I went to the artist's portfolio and saw a ton of similar images he left in color; so, I think the choice of monchrome greatly enhances the image. That said, I might have been tempted to correct the perspective a tad by straightening the converging lines, but, hey, I think the raw feel of the image is a big part of the charm. All in all, like I said, a fun image.

Aren't there times in our lives when stillness and solitude pervade? If so, perhaps Michael's photograph is a capture of such a time and place.

that was very well captured indeed Elves, composition, lighting, tone.. etc, make this photo like perfect smokey night. but, i wanna ask u one thing. Why you chose black n white?? - Warm Regards.

Meilky Morris.

A nicely done example of this type of photograph. I think the tonalities are well managed throughout. Deserted streets are somewhat different than abandoned ones, so maybe that is what Anders was referring to with regards to the sense human presence. I didn't see "locked" doors on the left, but that comment did make me look more closely at what was actually in that area. The type of fence and the gate that are there, in the foreground, do give off a more mysterious feeling to the image than how I saw the image on first take.

I did note that the particular set of images this is part of included a lot of versions of this place. I also noted that Michael had many different "vacant" paths throughout his entire portfolio (I looked through the basic thumbnails, not all images). It made me wonder if there might not be something more powerful in there, a series of such paths, with versions edited out. I think most people shoot this type of image, and thus it can become one of those "expected" things. But, maybe it can become more in its entirety and a different context.

Nice image.

"In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence"
--Simon and Garfunkel

It's uncertain to me whether the exposed lamp in the foreground is supposed to be acting as that flash of a neon light, splitting the night, and disturbing the sound of silence.

If the scene is supposed to be only tranquil, then the light is too much. If tranquility is supposed to be disrupted by it, it may not be harsh enough.

The atmosphere, the fog, the rays of light are beautifully captured, soft, lyrical, mesmerizing. The wet roadway is very nice as it recedes into the distance. The modern street lamps ruin the mood a bit for me and the main tree branch in the foreground would be a more effective element in this atmospheric shot, IMO, if it were a little more elegant.