mississippi, swamp cypress near the natchez trace parkway Walkway into the swamp...

I loved my drive along the Natchez Trace Parkway this past summer. I can't wait to go back and drive it again!! One of my favorite parts of the drive was this stop to stroll around this area of swamp cypress. They're beautiful! If it weren't for the bugs I would have stayed longer. (They say Alaska has a lot of big mosquitos! Try a swamp in Mississippi!!) Anyway - I'll have more shots from this same swamp tomorrow (or the next day). I really loved it there!

 

As far as the composition of this image, does the walkway overwhelm the rest of the content? Where do your eyes go when you're looking at it? Are the elements well placed? Other thoughts?

Any comments or ratings are appreciated! :-)

A beautiful composition, I like it, Lou Ann!

There is something funny about this photo - maybe the camera is at a slight angle, it looks like this is a wild ride and the buggy is careering to the left trying to make the turn! It definitely makes this swamp seem like it must be exciting! I think if you were trying to take a photo of the swamp, then the path does over dominate, but in my opinion this photo is about the experience of walking through the swamp on the boardwalk, and so its fine.

Thanks, Lucy. I contemplated playing with the perspective. I see that some of the closer trees seem to be leaning left ... but if you look in the background on the right, they're leaning right. It's more a quirk of the wwwwiiiiidddeeeee lens than anything else, so I decided to leave the orientation where it was. Later today I'll put up some shots from the swamp without the walkway. It really was a fun spot to wander. (Except for the BUGS!)

LouAnn, when i first saw this, i thought that looks like my neck of the woods...then i read where it is and it IS my neck of the woods. as someone who lives in the swamp, i can say you have done an excellent job capturing it. the swamp is a difficult place to photograph. i love the way the walkway brings the viewer into the swamp. swamp images need something like that to break them up or they tend to be very flat. if you do come down the Natchez Trace again, let me know. it would be fun to meet you and travel it together.

Oooooh!! I will!! I will!! Maybe we could even get Sarah to meet up with us. :-) Linda - if the bugs hadn't been so bad and a bad rainstorm pending (it started as I got into my car after shooting around here), I could have stayed all day. The GREENS were amazing!! And the lines. The trees are simply beautiful. The only problem was that the sky was blown out. So I have several shots with a boring sky. (Good thing the trees are tall and thick!) Anyway - check back in a couple of hours and I'll put a few more shots of the swamp here. Thanks for your visit!

Perfect POV, Lou Ann. You've got my hand on the railing the instant I look at this fine photo and it's into the swamp I go!

 

Big Brava!!

The lead in lines really make this shot. Well seen

Nice photo overall. Only problem I see is that the hand rail is very dominant where it intersects the lower left hand corner of the image. Obviously this is a function of the wide angle lens used - maybe taking the photo from a position more in the center of the boardwalk would have minimized this issue somewhat. You mentioned the trees leaning to the left or right. Looks to me like you had the camera pointed upward a couple of degrees. Really important with extreme wide angle optics to insure that the camera is level to avoid this keystoning effect. It is not really objectionable here as trees don't always grow perfectly upright anyway. Just my two cents on this all.