Standing Tall

This is an interesting image, Jason. And it got my attention out of many other fine offerings on view here in this forum. So congratulations, I guess, for that small distinction. (Smile) Anyway, in the way of any possible improvement, might I suggest you decide what you would like to emphasize--either the foreground or the longer view--and crop accordingly, taking from the bottom or the top of the image? As it is, the two being in rough equilibrium seems, to my eye, to pull the viewer's attention in two competing directions. But that is only my modest opinion, and someone else is likely to come along and tell you (and me) that I'm all wet. And by then I might well be, as it is supposed to rain here later. All the best, and congratulations on a nice image. Regards, Bernard

I actually like the abundance of sky and beautiful dark clouds more than the immediate foreground, so my preference would be to crop from the bottom, which would also have the effect of emphasizing the spears of dried stems rising into and silhouetted by the sky. There's nothing wrong with the lighting as far as I can see. Regards, Bernard

I would have given the sky more weight. That would have meant to move a couple of steps forward to avoid the distracting (OK, some folks might say they add interest :-) grass  stalks. Then I would have limited the field to, maybe, 1/5th of the frame, maybe even less, and let the sky take over. But then - I am a sucker for clouds.

First I considered moving the tree off-center, but I think it;s better right in the center. IIt's the focus of the image, and in my version, putting it off--center would have distorted it into a banana (upward tilted wide-angle lens) and then it wouldn't stand so tall any longer.

Finally, the dark vignette effect does not work for me.

Nevertheless, a fine image, but you asked for suggestions, so I gave you my two cents. Tae them with a grain of salt. :-)

After posting my last comment I found this image which is a lot closer to my suggestions. I wonder if you could use the same colours?

Best Regards 

Alf 

Bernard Christof, and Alf - thank you all for the suggestions.  I took another crop of it, and put it up here that goes in the direction of your thoughts for minimizing foreground and foregoing the vignette.  I like this version too.  Thank you for the critique!

Jason, on your attachment, I don't see anything that is in focus, whether close or far.  Were you using a tripod?  Again, I'd use focus stacking, probably 3 shots at f/8 (maybe f/11), one on the grasses, one a short distance behind the grasses, and the third on the tree.

Hi Stephen. I've never tried focus stacking before, so I will give it a try for a next homework assignment.  Th grasses I had intended to be out of focus (on this shot and the one with the fence the fence was intended to be out of focus).  I had wanted something in the near field to give the image a sense of depth, but did want to it be the focus so deliberately put them out of focus and set the auto focus to the tree.  I did use a tripod, but it was a little windy and may have caused the tree to fall out of focus with the movement.  Thank you for the review ... we'll see how the focus stacking goes.