Jungfrau

This picture cannot really describe the beauty of being at 3200m

a.s.l., in the middle of one of the largest glaciers of Europe, and

after a march in the dark being blessed by the first rays of sun on

the mythical and mystical peak of the Jungfrau.

 

Still, I tried to capture it and experiment with the composition: I

would very much welcome your opinion about what works and what does not.

 

Thanks!

You did very good work here and I can only try to imagine the conditions in my cozy and confortable chair. The composition works well for me. I enjoy the seeing people making determination to take nature's beauty. What didn't work for me is the bright foreground (flash?); it competes with the figure and the peaks. A silhouette of the ice tool would work better for me but that's just my humble opinion.

Hi Salvatore, what a great idea! Maybe the 'piccozza' (I dont know the name in English!) could have been more to the left so to better lead the eye from the left side to the right side of the picture. Actually, the rope alone would have produced a good result as well. Light and landscape are wonderful. Congratulations!

Good composition.

Salvatore. I think that the pick a little more to the left would work better but that's a pretty small nit. Your use of people in the scene helps enormously in gaining perspective. I'm really enjoying your recent climbing work.

Very nice exercise Salvatore, the composition with piolet is a brilliant and ocurrent idea, I like how you chased for the composition in special light conditions, alltought I would have looked for a wider diagonal maybe placing yourself a meter to the right, the rope diagonal is so strong it attracts a lot of attention, and the left space kind of make me wonder for its emptyness, maybe a right crop as suggested would balanced a bit the scene for me, wonderfull light, regards

The silver axe works nicely here! I have to disagree somwhat with Thai on this occasion - I think he's right that the circle of light brings to mind the flash too obviously, but I very much like the foreground lit snow fading to dark, and I think it is essential for the axe to be lit. Did you consider a B+W version? The nice yellow skyline is lost, but I think it makes the shot more mysterious/interesting. I tried to even out the foreground light, and bring out the figure a little too (who got a bit blended in losing the color). BTW I wouldn't crop (except maybe a tidge from the L) because of the aesthetics of the skyline (ref our earlier discussion).

A minor point - I think I'd prefer the axe to be vertical. I tried rotating but the figure (+pack, centre of balance) needs to be vertical too.

It looks like this is one of those composition that, asking 100 people, would suggest 100 different small changes. I have to say that I mostly agree with much of your suggestions in that -each- would make an equally pleasent image. In particular,

Thai, you are partially right in that the light in the front might be distracting, but the idea to use the flash was to imitate the small cone of brightness which your headlamp projects in front of you, which makes everything around you look usually darker when walking till sunrise. Then, indeed, sun rises, and the world takes back its contours. I wanted to post the one I took without flash, but I seem to have deleted it...

Laura, Jeff, Ferrando, all of you asking for the axe to be more to the left have a point... I think it should. Unfortunatly, cropping, would do bad to the ridge, unless going extreme as Ferrando suggests. This -unfortunatly- has the down-side of a strange aspect ratio...

Julie, I am usually so intoxicated by colours -and their memories- that the B&W conversion does not often occurr to me. I reckon that your version has some additional appeal in which brings out much more to the attention the rope shape and extends it onto a big arch going on the light/shadow edge. From there, the eye appreciates the texture of the snow/rock which is pulled out more by the monochromatic rendering. I've to think about it. And also think of putting the axe straight next time.