Why is my shadow faster than me?

...and for you?

Oh boy, do they make this one for me ?? ofcourse yes ... Nice one ..

nobody's reading a book there ?

Rejith, thanks.

Lionel, I did not bring a book this time: a short trip and we do not get yet so much sunlight hours. Still, I brought one on the the way up the Wildhorn

There is a nice 3D effect of the colourful, backpack-laden woman against the blue and white background. The shadow is very nice indeed. I like this one over many of your other mountain shots because it is not so static - the person is moving along doing their thing rather than standing waiting for the shot to be taken (except I can't figure out why she's holding her ski pole like that if she's mid-stride...) It feels cropped just a little close on the top and R, but still very nice.

Salvatore that is a nice compositional construction. There is the diagonal slop that form a rectangle and in it starting from the corner is an angle done by the figur and its shadow. two dominant forms. I wish a tiny bit more space in the upper part. The shadow is very dark, but is ballanced by the red backpak and jacket. It has as well the feeling of movement which adds to the interest. Pnina

Julie, so I finally learn that you think my mountains shot are static...well...they mostly are, apart from this and this other. I guess you have already seen them in context of a diatribe about mountain equipment colours. I think this is in general an attitude I have to shoot people contemplating a landscape rather than in a direct interaction with it. It's more a thing of wanting to show a landscape and let the viewer feel part of it, in awe, and identify with the person directly in it.

Still this is no real excuse, and I should explore further and get more action...

As for the position of the pole, you see that there are two other holes in front of the R one...you see, this was staged as well as she was not striding but just lifting the foot for the shot. Will try and do something better next time conditions allow. Maybe some motion shot where you see one ski still and the other moving forward, all this while I lie in a snow hole to the side of the expected point of passage...

As for the tight crop, I felt like it... I wanted to convey energy and I find that cropping tight is one of the best way I have to achieve it. Opinions?

Pnina, thanks. This was indeed a game of lines. I only regret I did not have a V shaped horizon with another peak to the far right, to echo the V shape of her and her shadow. As for the tighter crop, maybe a bit more space to the top was allowed, notwithstanding my "energy" discussion here above: you're right.

Well, yes, I admit your mountain shots sometimes remind me of the ascent of Rum Doodle - the careful planning and execution that goes with old-style mountaineering. But that also makes them very well composed and pleasing to look at. E.g. your recent "roped" shot has many wonderful elements and is hard to fault, yet I found myself wishing that you had asked them to walk towards or away from you once you were ready, perhaps with one of them half out of the frame as they walked past and the other in the distance... This is all a matter of taste though and I respect your motivation to present people contemplating and appreciating the landscape. Probably it's partly because of my familiarity with such landscapes that I find some of these portrayals overly posed, since in my experience there is often little time to stop and gaze at the landscape when being chased by nightfall or the next storm, except of course when there's a photo that must be taken...

So I was pleased to see you asked your model to simulate motion here (yes, the basket prints were the other giveaway, but these things aren't really noticed except on close inspection) - her motion and her forward-look and lean really add to the composition, combining with the shadow so that everything is moving from lower L to upper R, and the topography is perfectly suited. I see where you're coming from with wanting to crop tightly to give a sense of energy. I can't really say without comparing a looser crop but I feel like just a little more on top and even less more on R would enhance the dynamic by giving her space to move into. On a more technical note, the sky looks a little noisy - did you already do some noise reduction? (I'm a bit obsessed with noise at present having just got some new software).

Julie, thanks for your time. I appreciate a lot your comments since I know that you are familiar with these landscapes. Let me elaborate on a few points.

 

Concerning the carefully planned and executed shots, you will be most surprised, but very often that's exactly not the case. I have often just a few moments when the party takes a break for a drink, a map check or a more physiological reason... I have just the time to get the gloves off, get the camera off its pouch, ask the models to face a way or another, and shot three frames. So that's indeed a capture of the rare moments one affords to get a fleeting glance around. This is while on the move. On the summits there are a few seconds more. The advantage is that by now I expose and compose by heart and get consistent results without thinking too much! As the example of "roped" you made (which rated pretty badly on photo net, but who cares) that must have taken less than thirty second to prepare and shot, including a good-lenght swearing exercise in realising a bounce against a rock the previous day had shattered my polariser.

 

What I am considering as a next step, is to indeed start "preparing" the shots (exposing, framing) and then try and capture some action as the party moves through. This is what I did in the ice and rock climbing pictures I referred to in my previous post. I shall do it more often. Of course, the pictures which "sell" better are those in seemingly more critical situations, where it might be more cumbersome to do all preparation while moving on the rope...at any rate I've plans to shot a lot during next season and I will keep your comments all in mind.

 

On another note, as for the noise, I did not do anything... do you think one should? It is easy to get obsessed by that...given the poor results I get out of my scanner I am trying to resist getting sucked into noise reduction.

Salvatore - I like the "action" in this as well, but unlike many of your mountain/climbing shots, this one feels very cramped. Too close to the left and top I think. I like all the lines in this too - the poles and shadows, the triangular elements etc. I just want more space!

I find noise reduction a great tool for shots taken with my D100. It seems less important for slide scans (what scanner do you have?), and even less for my new D200. If you do look into it, I would definitely recommend the dedicated software like Neat Image or one of the others, although photoshop in its next reincarnation will probably be catching up with those, at present it's far behind.

Kathy, it seems that this tight-crop=lots-of-energy is a very subjective view. Thanks for your opinion. I'll have to practice with leaving more space around the subject still trying and getting more action in. I did quite some experimenting this weekend, and I'll be posting something, provided passes my hard selection criteria.

 

Julie, my coolscan V is horribly noisy in blue skies, at least for film. I scanned some velvia slides and they were much better. The D70 does get noisy: I've some high-iso shots from India which will need some cleaning... but I keep on trying to resist this surely time-consuming and possible obsession-inducing noise fight altogether... we'll see.