moving rock

Taken in december, using a 14mm wide angle lens.

 

comments welcome thanks

Great photo!

Very good capture of a weird phenomenon!

very nice...

I like the photo,Smashing. regards

Love the perspective, tones, and sky. Very good capture of this motif

Where is it moving to?

 

Great photo. I love textures. Thanks.

Good eye -- very nice alternative to an often-photographed phenomenon.

Really nice B&W shot. I love the composition and the subject. I would like to see this great picturein a more "extreme" B&W... it must be amazing. Congratulations Jane. Regards. Agus

Typically racetrack photos have a rock right in the foreground - this is an interesting compositional choice with the rock off further in the distance and nothing but that great texture to enliven the bottom half of the shot. I also *really* like the sky here with that mist starting to enshroud the mountains. Not the usual sunny day at the racetrack. Very nice work indeed.

Having been there myself recently (4/3/06) on a magical morning as the sun came up through clouds, I know what a wonderful place this is.

 

I like the angle you choose to get the interesting s-curve of this rock's track. This is different than many of the other Racetrack Playa images I have seen.

 

For my money, strange weather is the best weather on the playa - and in Death Valley in general. It looks like you timed your trip just right!

This perspective gives the impression the rock is racing towards you.

 

Really interesting.

 

Could do with some straightening maybe?

Very nice work. i like it

Great capture unique composition

Perfect !!!

beautiful!

One of the most amazing shots from this icon I have seen. Awesome perspective, composition & technical work.

An excellent image which I consider to be visually appealing. Some time in the distant past, an old photographer told me to strive for 10 shades of 'grey': from the blackest black to the lightest white and he referred to it as dynamic range. This image probably accurately reflects what you saw on that day but as an image, I feel it needs a tad more punch to make it more visually appealing to me. This can be achieved on a different day with more contrasty lighting or fiddling with post processing to augment that dynamic range. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this may be perfectly fine to most. Hope you find the comment to be constructive as that was my intention. Regards,

Please note the following:

 

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Visitors have browsed the gallery, found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why

does it work? Or,

indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer such questions with your contribution.

 

In my opinion, this shot has faults which distract me from the otherwise very interesting subject and phenomenon. First, the burnt-out sky nearly dazzles the viewer. I don't understand why noone has noticed it -- it really disturbs, and does not look like something the photographer did on purpose.

 

Another major fault is the very strong optical distortion in the lowest part of the picture. I love your idea of using the ultrawide lens here, but would crop the picture just a little anyway. This would remove the heavily distorted parts without distroying the dramatic effect of wide viewing angle.

 

Also, the horizon should be straightened.

 

All in all, not the very best picture in its current shape; but much could be improved in post-processing.

This is very cool, and I love the moody feeling that the clouds give. It appears to be the same rock from a

previous photo of the week. See

href="http://photo.net/photodb/photo-of-the-week/search?month=November&year=2005">http://photo.net/photodb/photo-of-the-week/search?month=November&year=2005

.

 

It would be interesting to know when the two pics were taken - if you compare them the rock doesn't appear to

have moved very much.

This was one of the first set of landscape images that I shot. I had been scouring the photo websites looking at what other

phootgraphers had been doing with landscape and decided to extend a family holiday to a trip to DV in 2006 to explore this

genre, I had just purchased the 5D and was experimenting with different compositions and lenses as I was not confident

with what kind of approach would be successful. It was fortunate that it was a overcast day which added to the surreal

mood. I agree the post processing leaves a bit to be desired as this was posted while was still becoming familiar with

photoshop skills. Landscape photography is still a genre that excites and challenges me and this image is still thought of with

fondness.

Hopefully this later processing might be an improvement, although the sky still llooks a little blown. the raw is okay, so the

image still requres more work

target="_blank">http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a373/JaneGoodall/web30sharpened.jpg

alt="Photobucket">

Best regards

 

Jane

Your name captured my interest a while back because I'm a fan of the chimpanzee work by your namesake. I love your work and really should have commented on it before now. But now that this picture is Photo of the Week, (congrats!), here goes...... I like this very much, all except for a slight tilt (it seems to me) of the horizon. With regard to the 2 previous remarks from Tony and Adam.....both very valid remarks, but I happen to think the tones as you have them are quite good. The rather bland toning just adds to the austere nature of this place IMHO. And I love the wide angle approach, even with the distortion. Again, this is certainly an 'other-worldly' scene, and I think it enhances that aspect of it. Just my two cents..... I'll check out more of your work soon. Oh, and when I was at the Racetrack last March, two different park rangers strongly cautioned us against driving out there without a high clearance vehicle. Then Chris H told me he's done it and we probably wouldn't have had any trouble. Drat!!

This subject is so popular that it is almost cliché, like the slot canyons or painted hills or the Wave. But to my mind, this image proves that cliché doesn't have to be so formulaic. What I like about this version and what separates it from the other 99% is the restraint of the photographer. I'd be surprised if PN has even one other shot of this subject where the rock is so distant that it isn't a foreground focal point. Everyone focuses on the phenomenon of how the rock got dragged across the earth, apparently thinking that simply casting that mystery under a pretty sunset or sunrise will automatically produce a winner. This photographer's restraint from embracing that vastly overdone viewpoint makes this image unique and interesting to me. It's a nice demonstration of how compositional ingenuity can be the equal of luck or magic hour timing for landscapes - great choice by the elves for POW.

I completely agree with Patrick; it is the rock and its trail in the middle-distance that makes this a more unique view of the Racetrack for me. The patterned and textured FG of the playa surface really gives this a lot of pop. The vertical format and the black and white presentation all work together nicely to add to the sense of space and solitude. I have been to the Racetrack several times myself, and always find it a challenge to find just such a unique view. Well done, Jane; this has always been one of my favorites of your excellent landscapes. Congratulations on the POW selection. Cheers! Chris