Temagami morning mist

wonderful image, very peaceful and medative, well done!

Truly outstanding work here Gordon.

I feel like I could just reach out and feel that mist. The crop works really nice with the curve of the tree. Makes you wonder whats on the other side.

J

The view from my canoe seat a few weeks back. Thanks for any comments,

they are always much appreciated.

Great mood here, very peaceful. I like the mist, well done.

 

Greetings, Els

Excellent!! Sigh... another of those "wish I were there" photos.

Lovely picture Gordon. You have captured the scene well, it has a real sense of early morning about it. Well done

Wonderful!!!

Beautiful and very well exposed and composed photograph

 

All of the best

hey gord friend,

great capture, the mist and the amount of light is just right, everything looks harmonic

I know how hard it is to take a photo like this, I've tried it myself some time ago after the rain ceased

 

greets, Patrick

Gordon, While I agree with most of the positive comments above I also keep my mind open to a possible other crop. While I love the shape and position in the frame of the tree as well as the beautiful backlighting, it seems to me that the main element here is the much sought after mist and the mood of stillness upon the water that it infers. I don't believe that the reflection is necessary here and think it possibly adds a distracting element to the scene. I offer another crop for your consideration & bet you'd never guess my other camera is a Bronica SQ Ai :-) A worthwhile keeper no matter your decision. Best, LM.

I think this photo is outstanding. I love the mood and the feeling it projects. Thanks for taking the time to comment on my "Lake Huron" photo. I would be glad to help in anyway with your Photoshop endeavors.

This just glows! Very special light you've captured here. Love the simple, but incredibly beautiful composition. Wonderful work, Gordon. A 6/6 anonymously. Cheers! Chris

Gordon, it has been fun reading all of the wonderful comments that your image has engendered. I have to say that I really like the crop that Len has suggested. I saw that crop too. Yes, it creates an entirely different image from that posted, but I think they are both very powerful. Great work, Gordon. Cheers! Chris

I always make a concerted effort to keep my mind open and I thank you for the time you have taken with my photo and for your suggestion. I too had considered the crop you put forward here and perhaps more hastily than I should have, I discarded the idea. I do agree the reflection is not integral to the composition, I just felt the overall balance was better with more still water at the bottom of the frame. You have inspired me to go back to the proverbial drawing board and take another run at this one. Maybe if I split the difference and reduce the bottom portion and as well try to tone down that reflection......

Thanks to all for your words of advice and encouragement, it is much appreciated. Regards Gord

Thanks for your generosity. I am too embarrassingly inept just yet, but soon I hope to change all that and it is wonderful to know I can come to you for some sage advice.

Another great capture Gordon (and I wish I had a canoe too - although maybe a sea kayak would be more suitable where I am!)

 

I'm looking at both your original and Len's crop and can see a lot in favour of both. The original version really does have an air of stillness and calm to it thanks in big part to the still reflection in the water. The image works well as a whole for this. But Len's crop certainly focusses attention more on the mist - through both removing the reflection so there is les distraction, and moving the main line of the mist to a stronger 2/3 position within the frame - giving the picture a more errie, and colder, feeling. I like both very much - and pretty equally - and they each convey something different.

 

Nice job.

 

Pete

In my neighborhood it's handy to have a canoe and a sea kayak. Lots of quite inland waters to paddle and the Georgian Bay for kayaking. Thanks for your thoughts on my photo.

I saw this the other day in mornings no words.... I love it...what a peaceful start to a day.... excellent!

Hello you there, fellow Crazy Canuck. Two different tribes, same madness I think.

 

OK, now that the dust has settled down, here is my two cents.

 

First, just to make sure not to start a war, I have not got to the point of commenting images that are really bad. So, yes, I do like the atmosphere of this picture quite a lot. Is it perfect? Nope. Does it have "problems"? Yep.

 

I will comment it in two different posts for the simple reason that I cannot attach two files to the same post, a pity.

 

ABOUT CROPPING

What about cropping? Hmm... this may well be a matter of what emotion you wish your image to convey. Personally, I would stick to your initial vertical framing. Maybe a teeny tiny bit of cropping at the bottom and the right, keeping the same ratio or thereabouts. But once again, this is only a matter of opinion.

 

If I were really to crop, I would use the Big Scissors and go all the way, thus getting the image attached.

 

Stay tuned... :-)

 

RogerG, The Iconoclast

Thanks so much for taking the time to help out with this shot. I will wait for your second post before responding in any detail. Right now I have to go outside and deal with the 30 cm of snow that has fallen.... gotta love living on the shore of Georgian Bay :)

I told you in my preceding post that the image had "problems". Well, cropping is not a problem, it is a matter of opinion and what one wants to do. So that's that.

 

PROBLEMS?

So where are the "problems"?

 

I sure hope that you took a lot of shots there, because this lake or whatever will soon be empty! It is draining itself to the right... Woohoo!!! :-)

 

OK OK OK, not much, but I swear that your horizon is not horizontal. I studied this picture for a long time now, and yes, you should correct this horizon business. Nothing much as I said, nobody saw it, but then, there it is.

 

ANOTHER PROBLEM

You've got a big, sunny, washed out white spot. 255-255-255, and it's big. I admit that in this format it doesn't show too much, but I suspect that it would be deadly on a big print.

 

If you've got a RAW file of this, you should be able to correct this rather easily and be back in business. If not, if you want to get rid of it, you're in for some very careful cloning, preferably using layers and if you're lucky, a WACOM tablet. :-)

 

WHAT ELSE?

Well, this is not really a problem, and one may well like the image better as it is now. However, the position of the sun desaturates the green colour IMHO. It would be fun to try one of those two alternatives:

 

- either boost colour saturation;

 

- or go right into black and white, and indeed this is a perfect candidate for a black and white image.

 

My personal preference would go to black and white. Saturating colours may not be to the taste of everyone including myself!.

 

You will find attached a file where I corrected the horizon and boosted colours a tiny bit. Didn't try my hand at the white spot though. But I would prefer the black and white...

 

Whaddayathink?

 

RogerG

- "'Right now I have to go outside and deal with the 30 cm of snow that has fallen..."

 

HA HA HA HA!!! I'm just back from clearing the freaking place of... 30 cm of snow!!! Ha ha ha... And the brand-new ultra-sophisticated heat pump went kaputt this morning, waiting for the guy to do some magic on it. Automatic fall-back on central electric heating though, so that's no problem.

 

Have fun!

 

RogerG

Well I'm back indoors to warm up before filling the tank and finishing up with the blower. Judging by the direction of the gale force wind out their, I am not surprised you got 30 cm of snow. I would guess that storm came from your house directly toward mine :)

 

First I have to comment about your remark about eventually having something to say about some of my images that you may like. Although it is also helpful to hear what works in an image, I believe it is likely more important to be offered suggestions for improvement. This is something which takes much much more effort than saying "great shot" So please feel free to keep picking from the bottom of my barrel, you will be doing me a service.

 

Sometime I find an image only offers one good crop or at least only one that I can see and the choice becomes easy. Other times, and this one is a good example, I struggle with the crop and am never happy. Comparing your big scissor crop to the suggestion made earlier and comparing that to my original crop leaves me feeling like something in between all three may be the answer. I am going to work on this and post a new crop very soon ( if it stops snowing for a bit ).

 

I usually shy away from upping the saturation, as IMO it is too often a lame trick to try and hide a poor image. In this case though it works for me. The strong side light from the sunrise has put so much light onto those branches that the colour has been washed out and your tweak is subtle enough that I think it improves the image.

 

I will also take a run at this in B&W. Back when I posted this shot my B&W skills in PS were terrible. They are still not great now, but I do have a bit more understanding so it will be worth a try.

 

The blown highlight line is a hard call for me. I will go back to the raw file and see what I can do with my limited skills. In the original scene the light coming down that bay and striking the water was a blinding white light as compared to the rest of the scene. Of course I cannot know unless I try a good sized print how this blank white area will look on paper. I will try to bring up more detail if there is any there to reveal. If I could come up with only a fine line of 255 on the waters surface I think that would be an improvement also.

 

As for the lake running dry, I had a hard time picking a line to use for straightening and I think I used the water line at the near shore. At any rate it is alway better to have a lake level to cut down on spills :)

 

Roger, thanks for taking the time to offer up so many good suggestions for ways to work on improving this shot. I am indebted to your thoughtfulness. BTW I do not have anything as fancy and a heat pump to stay warm, I have to throw another log on the fire. The up side is that even when the hydro goes out, which it does all the time, I can still stay warm. I have electric back up as well in case the fire burns low or when I'm not around to feed it.

 

Well my tea is done so it's off to blow more snow.

Hey Gord, we're not like those guys from Toronto or Montr顬, eh? We're not afraid of a bit of snow now and then, what?

 

:-)

 

RogerG, From Up There