A rest on the top.

This was taken at about 3500m/10000ft, at the top of a mountain inthe French Alps, the Aiguille du Tour, and I would appreciate somecomments on the composition

• Should I have moved the rope to the bottom right corner?
• This failed, should I crop so to have it end up there?
• Is the position of my climbing partner too much to the left?
• What else would you change, here?

Most important question, then, do you like more this or this othershot, more to the left?Thanks!

IMHO, for me the rope lying there brings the viewer along with the climber. It shows that time wasn't taken to tidy up for the shot, making it appear as though you had just arrived at the summit. The fact that the main theme of the photo is the view from the top, and why the trek was made in the first place so the climber being to the left is as it should be. The photo you present here, is for the viewer a peek(pun intended) inside the world of the adventurer, thanks.

Back a bit ! Great work

Salvatore, I like the composition. The rope follows the line of the ridge and seems natural to me, it also leads the eye to the climber. I wouldn't change it and the view on the right is awesome so don't crop it out. The climber on the left balances the peak on the right and provides a scale of size. If anything at all, I might like to see a crop with a little less on the bottom and a little more of the sky on top to bring the horizon into a 2/3 position in the frame, but that would be just to see if it worked any better.

I agree with Carl on the composition. I might have lightened a little bit of the shadows and increased saturation, especially the red of the jacket, but I like this and it reminds me of my own summit adventures many years ago.

Folks, thanks for your insight. It is a good source of motivation to shoot in these conditions.

• JimThanks for your kind words. Indeed we had just arrived, from the left-hand side, I passed in front of him, went to the end of the limited summit space, and shot looking back: the rope comes then to my harness.
• Mark This is what was on the back... so that's it for this time.. no backing-up :). How great it is to have purchased a 20mm, indeed!
• Carl Thanks for the idea about shooting a bit higher. One of these evenings I will try and see if I have a bit more sky in the negative, even though I seem to remember that this was roughly it. I had considered getting a bit less bottom part, but I thought that some white snow was looking nice in that corner of the picture
• David. The colours are pretty much those which were up there, even though with brown glacier-glasses they were different, and once the glasses are removed to shoot, one is easy blown away by the light...ah, the jacket is indeed orange!

I like the composition the way it is and think the rope is quite expressive. I'd not move it. I do, however, have a comment regarding your framing. It appears to me (quite personal) that it's a little too overwhelming? Perhaps a lower frame/picture ratio would be more helpful. This is of course the way it appears to me. I enjoyed your other shots indeed.

 

"Keep up" ;-)

Ali, that's the same amount I use on the walls at home, which are white as the photo.net background. Since it took me a while to figure out what I liked there, I decided to do the same here... and stuck with that even though you are not the first to remark it and might very well be right.

The climber is not too far to the left. This is where he should be; perhaps a little lower down, like in "Peak stop..." What's better in this photo is that here the climber is looking into the scenery, suggesting more involvement. Ideally, the climber should be positioned at the lower left corner, looking up at the peak at the far right instead of looking straight ahead. He is looking at something else, but we can't see what. Something else seems more important than that peak although that should be the focus of attention. Even you, the photographer, have cropped the peak, saying in effect, "it's not that important". If it's not important, you should have cropped it away altogether and focused on something else; if it is, then show more of it. It's supposed to be the point of interest but you've shown only half of it and not even the climber is looking at it.

Johannes, I agree with your interpretation of the picture, in that more of the twin summit should have been included (it is indeed one of the features of this place). Unfortunatly, there are limits with what I could do with the 20mm, and there was no point in stepping a bit backward...as you might imagine, since it would have been "touching the void".

 

Cheers,

I prefer this shot, over the other one of your climbing partner. This one is nicely composed, with good color and pretty scenery. Not bad for 3500m!

really nice composition for a summit!

(and good souvenirs I went there twice in 2002 and 2003, 2003 was very dangerous to descent the couloir in between the two Aiguilles, though I think they are both still in Switzerland)

They are at the border, actually. I think I was shooting from Switzerland and he might be sitting in France, actually...

 

We did the tour from Albert Ier, on the French side [Through the culouir de la Table and the ridge, as from the other pictures in the folder] came down into Switzerland and then crossed again at the col du Tour. That's also why the location talks about France :)

 

I am also attached to this place, was my first alpine snow tour a few years before this picture was taken.

 

Ciao, s.

You have many cool shots in your folders! This is one of my favorites. Excellent work, and keep it coming!

-Anish

I agree with Jim Hayes and Carl Novotny. I like natural unstaged photos. Went there in 2003. The route over Tacul was too dangerous because of the extremely warm summer and we had an unexperienced guy with us. Most of my snapshots (my first time taking a camera) were from Cosmique and surrounding area while getting used to the altitude. Decided to go up over Gouter instead where I just took a disposable camera with me.

http://www.amp-design.com/montblanc/montblanc26.gif

Last part of the treck wasn't too much fun for me (think the water on Gouter didn't agree with my stomach... grins)

This is defintely a much better composition Sal. It shows us where he is looking at and the clear mountain colors are awesome. Remind me of the time I was at Glacier Point in Yosemite overlooking Half Dome. The view is breath-taking but we went there the easy way - by car to the top. ^_^

I have recently processed a picture which shows our way to the top, pasted up here.