Roped

It looks best LARGER

When composing this, I liked the interplay of all triangles... what

about you?

 

Your comments and criticism on this high-altitude shot of mine (as

well as all the other in these folders) is warmly welcome!

I really like the composition with the positioning of the climbers (maybe crop out the negative space below the bottom hiker), but the image appears a little dark.

 

From my experiences the sky is a brilliant deep blue, but not quit that deep.

A great scenery, artfully staged. I see your compository concept, and it works perfectly for me. Not an easy sky to raise interest, but the crop makes a nice triangular element even there. The slightly eccentric vanishing point feels good, and the placement of the person in the foreground balances the composition. The basics like exposition, color, contrast, sharpness etc are handled excellent, as expected after a view into your portfolio ;-)

 

Cheers

 

Carsten

I hate to follow Carsten -- he has covered the strengths of this image so well. But I do love this composition Salvatore. I also really like how the textures in the snow and the Mountains resonate. Well done.

and I hate to follow David following Carsten, the triangles are great but the top wispy cloud is also a winner in this shot acting as a continuation to the people.

@Ross you might be right on a tighter crop from the bottom. I had chosen this one since I sort of liked the slope toward the right: quite gentle when compared to the sharp lines everywhere else. As for the sky, I looked at this on three different monitors, and the colours are pretty much what they were that morning. I'm fully polarising- here- with the sun between my side and my back. With the sun fully to my side, I've really gotten -at higher altitudes- black skies.

@Carsten that was not staged...we were just catching a bit of breath and contemplating the view. I ran around in the limits of the 15 meters of rope between me and her and the slope so to compose the shot like this.

@David the texture of the Dente Blanche is intoxicating indeed. Another take is here.

@Jeff I had high hopes that the cloud would contribute to the otherwise empty triangle of sky: I am glad you like it.

@Richard ;-)

I most have been up there somewhere, thirty five years ago, and spent a terrible night in a snowstorm, after the four dankeys. This reminds me that I have not seen Res, my compagning on this venture probably for more than thirty years. But tell me, from which side of the Dente Blanche is this photo taken? The composition with all the triangles is excellent and I like the dark sky. Karl

Karl, here the general view of the place -although you do not need it, it is here for completeness.

Here instead the details. This picture is shot from the X. This other pitcure is shot a bit higher, again in the same place.

This other pitcure instead is shot from the other side, where the "2" is marked.

So it is from where I guessed. The Col Durand is a place which I keep in mind to be one of the most spectacular ones on earth, between the Zinalrothorn, Obergabelhorn and the Dent Blanche and in front of the impressive northfaces of Matterhorn and Dent d'Herens, a place where my reverence and desire for grand mountains has its roots. Thanks for reminding me this place. Perhaps I should go back there again and have another look at all these mountains I have climbed in the meantime.

Karl, you should for sure go there again, even though you might not recognise the places anymore with the recent fast melting of glaciers. The col de Durand, which used to be a walk, is now a wall of ice climbing, since the slope leading to it has vanished.

Salvatore, this really portrays the feeling of being in the open air among the peaks. That's not an easy thing to do. Maybe I get that feeling because I'm a climber. That makes it special for me.

Oliver, if you know the real feeling, you know how difficult it is to "trap" it into a picture. So your appreciation makes me think my efforts in conveying the feeling of being out there do work. Thanks a lot.

Salvatore, indeed, it's not a feeling I can explain; this picture comes closest to portraying it.