Trestles and Rock

Comments appreciated on composition, contrast on this b&w shot. I

took this under a bridge, wading through river muck while the tide

was out. Thanks.

Very nice composition indeed! It could have worked without the stone as well, if you'd cropped at bit tighter. With the stone it's marvelous, with interest all over the frame.

Beautiful.

If this is 'real' then reality can be truly great

Thanks for the comments, Eirik, Mark, and A.B. It's been raining for weeks on the coast in Oregon (USA) where I live, so I snuck out of work a little early yesterday late afternoon to shoot a little Holga, then ventured down by an old bridge to work with the sunset. The tide was out and I wandered around in the mud some and took quite a few 4-30 second exposures of rocks, water, and trestles in sunset. To get this one, I was in mud up to my ankles, and hoping not to lose a shoe! I'll post some of the color shots this weekend. I almost didn't shoot this one, because I was thinking in color at the time, and the nice colors were coming from a different angle. Fortunately, I waded over to get this one, too.

As smoooooth as silk. Great shot and worth losing a shoe over! Look forward to seeing more from this outing.

Works for me, nice work, I know it's hard to come up with good new stuff up here in the Northwest in the winter. I like it alot.

i agree with all the above. delightful image.

Very nice abstract image. I like the softness, yet it is counterbalanced by the rock, which really anchors the image. I also appreciate the work required to get this photo. Lewis & Clark camped near Astoria during the winter of 1805-06, and during the 6 months of their stay, it rained every day except for about 11, if I remember my reading correctly.

Very beautiful.

Masterful, Robert. Congatulations!

Very nice, if i may offer one small nit. The one line that comes down to the top of the rock, id probably clone that out. Very nice job here!!

 

robert.........

This is great.. a 6/7 for sure... Loving the smooth look to this one... and the Composition is great as well. makes the shot

I have been going through your folders and this one is my favorite, FANTASTIC, great composition with great contrast.

Really love this one !

this is nice. i like the reflections of the posts(?) at the top.

Good candidate for B&W. Nice balance between the opposite diagonals. There seems to be a yellow fringe around the lower right diagonal - does anyone else see that? Not that it spoils anything particularly. Is it from duotone processing?

Great photo, great choice for POW, and lots of other nice pictures in Robert's portfolio. Glad to see his picture on the frontpage as well since he has always been a great contributer to this site in so many ways.

 

Now, about the comment written by the Elves...

 

"Compositionally, there's not much else that could be included in this shot."

 

Agreed. My only (minor) nitpick would be that a more perfect balance would be achieved if the rock was a tad more to the right...

 

"Does the diagonal counteract the serenity of the time exposed water?"

 

Diagonal = energy. So the answer is yes, I guess. But it works great imo.

 

"Is the subject the rock, or the reflection? How do each of these suppport, or detract from each other?"

 

I don't think it would be fair to pick either the rock or the reflections as THE main subject. I see this a little bit as an abstract, where no part is really more important than another. Visually, the rock is still more prominent imo, but that is not clear enough to say it's the main subject imo.

 

"What would happen if one were removed? Would the picture fail? Or be better?"

 

Imo, the picture would fail, because it would be less interesting, as well as unbalanced.

 

For me, this picture is about natural harmony between what moves and what's stable. Regards.

One of your beautiful B&W! Great work as always!

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the optical anomily. The trestles converging into the dark diagonal seem to draw the ripples on the water up into the trestles. This picture is moving! or I need an early night.

I think the choice of using duotones was the right one. This one works, just as it is, imo. Take out any of the elements and I don't think this would be nearly as strong. A natural abstact...

The sharp solidity of the rock contrasts neatly with the liquidity and relative softness of the reflections and the water. Would be good in as big a print as you could manage, keeping the fineness of the rock detail. I'd surely put it on my wall.

Having two equally distinctive subjects should be avoided because it sets up a tension between the two, but in this case, the many comparisons - lines/shape, rhythm/dominance, hard/soft, motion/stationary, natural/manmade - are so compelling that they become the subject.

congrats, Robert. One of my favorites of yours.

 

Marc pretty much hit all my observations. There is an implied S-curve starting from the upper right and then jumping over onto the rock about 3/5ths down the diagonal. I think you could remove the trestle and screw the picture up pretty bad, but removing the rock still works after a fashion, although the result is much, much weaker. Basically, the combiniation of the two is far better than the sum of their parts.

Nothing much to add after Marc and Doug... you really deserved the attention of elves... impressive portfolio in both: size and quality; and a very active PNet member. This image, although not my favorite of yours is probably a good choice for discussion.

Although the 2 designs are totally different, I find the disposition a bit too 'symetric' if I may say, probably because of the diagonal split whhich separates the image in 2 almost equal surfaces.

I am also a bit bothered by the little vertical shadow which reaches the rock from the top ...