Not for today...

I would warmly welcome your comments on the composition of this shot

-and, actually, on any other of my mountain shots- I'm trying to

improve my craft in the style. Thanks!

Como siempre perfecta,,,,magnifica imagen,, bello encuadre y color,, un cordial saludo.

http://www.hectorbrandan.com/images/julio-carmona.gif

Composition? Very nice! The person at the bottom looking at the mountains, contemplating his objective or admiring nature's majesty, works well for me. There is a good flow that leads me from the trail and the person to the background mountains and then up the slope to the top. Beautiful photo by the way. Nicely done.

Very nice... and good day to walk by the mountain. That summit is? Greetings.

 

-JCB-

Salvator, your mountain pics with a human being as a part of it, is my fivorite of your mountains pics. It always gives a scale of man vs. nature.Man always wanted to "conquer" the mountain and find its secrets and beauty( You are one of them as well...)

 

The composition has a special blueish tint,and with the blue sky gives it the aroma of cold winter mood. I like the smooth untouched area with only the trail that the man did,he as a red point in the area and the light.Envious place to be. Pnina

Lovely shot. I do not see anything that could be improved.

Salvatore, what is the message here? The composition is good, red is good, the relative size is good, technically it is good. The climber appears to be looking at his feet though. If it is 'not for today' shouldn't he be looking up?

 

 

Thanks to all of you for your support, shall I get around making a calendar, this shot might make it.

 

Jeff, to me it looks like she is looking at the col between the peak you see and the ridge going up to the right: the black spot of her glacier sunglasses give the rough direction of sight...I do not have the original file around now, so I just blow up the PN larger image.

Salvatore, I can see what you mean, but I needed it explained. I guess that it's one of those wonderful limitations of looking at a small JPG on a screen.

I enjoy all of these shots - think they do a good job of showing humans in the environment, with an appropriate sense of relative scale. I'm also completely impressed with the exposures on your snow and water shots - that stuff ain't easy.

One suggestion, and this is very much a matter of personal style - it might be interesting to shoot much, much closer to the person in your landscapes, so there's more emphasis on the human and physical experience of being in these places. We've talked about synesthesia before, and I think you capture that really nicely in a lot of these shots (I get it here BTW, putting myself in the photographer's position). But I think it's synesthesia for the environment and not the effort or the apprehension we can often feel when we get to these places - as you know, it's not always that wonderful fulfilling peaceful feeling. I think it could also be interesting to make the focus of the shot a portion of a person and/or the gear they're wearing or using, and blur out the background with some mild or strong DOF differences so the landscape is more suggested, especially with the possibilities presented by the vivid blues, whites and reds / yellows colours in the clean light.

Hope this helps. Best, Jeremy

Jeremy, I have been thinking a lot about this comment of yours. Technically, in all the shots of this summer, this was often impossible, since we were roped just in two on glaciar terrain and were therefore far apart for safety reasons. Moreover, my choice of spending the summer with a 20mm (x1.5) in front of the camera does not really help. At any rate I think I am "through" this Man-in-Nature theme of mine and in the next season I will try -going out in two or more parties- to get some shots where the human perspective gets amplified.

Incidentally, did you see this shot or this other shot, where there is a stronger "human" effect, maybe?

Cheers, s.

Hi Salvatore - I realized shortly after I posted my comment that it would be hard, with just the two of you, to get close enough to get the kind of shot I was talking about. I was also having a chuckle imaginging you trying to persuade your climbing partner to let you get that close, and then shoot them looking exhausted or apprehensive. I have enough trouble getting river guides to do that, and our positions are seldom that precarious. They always resist when I or one of the other primary photographers in our circle insist on stopping or slowing down for shots, but then always complain we should have shot more when we do slide shows of the trip back home - no pleasing them.

 

If it were me, however, I think I'd stick with a w/a prime as the lens - I've been toying with the idea of trying some of the kind of shot I'm after with a fisheye, but I'd need to be very, very close. I like a longer lens for action, but they seem to provide less intimate shots (and they're heavier and bulkier). But ... then again, maybe a 20mm and an 85mm (but without the 1.5 multiplier) ... and ... hmmm, maybe the F100 for action/autofocus as opposed to the FM3 - it'll depend on how far I'm going and the weight issues (rafting, it's easy - the boats carry 100's of kilos of gear).

 

I also realized that, although I like the idea of that kind of shot, I have barely any like that in my own portfolio. Assuming we get snow this winter, I'll be trying that myself when ski-touring, then later when the river season starts again - we'll have to compare results.

 

I like the shots you linked to. I think they do a good job of communicating more of the human perspective. But I think I'll be trying to get closer.

 

I want to emphasize - I like the shots you've been taking. If I hadn't been looking at them in the critical way you'd been suggesting, I doubt I'd have thought of a different approach that would affect my own shots as well - so, ... thanks!

 

Best, Jeremy