Elk Mountain, Wyoming

This is Elk Mountain, Wyoming. The structure in foreground, making

this a giant triangle, is a 'snow fence' the purpose of which is to take the

energy out of wind and cause the snow to drift in the lee of the 'fence' --

Wyoming is covered with such fences near highways and rail lines as

drifting blown snow is a major transportation difficulty. Your ratings and

critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your superior photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Great tones...I also like the comp. and the fishing is awesome along the Medicine Bow river..... Congrats on a good shot

It took some nursing in B&W to get the tones just right, from raw (NEF) but I like this version -- I am trying for the look of some of the great American landscape photographers (not Ansel Adams mind you but more contemporary MidWestern-based ones).

 

I seldom post landscapes -- they seem 'too easy' and require preplanning being in one place then just standing there, which goes against my nature.

 

If I happen to be in the right place at the right time, I'll make a landscape if i can do a good job, otherwise I'll pass it by. This struck me as being 'picturesque' but only if the 'snow fence' in the foreground were included.

 

Yes, the Medicine Bow RIver, nearby is both productive and beautiful with fall colors (maybe now just past). I once flew over it for a long time at night at high altitude as it reflected the moonlight and it was like a silver thread on the earth, twisting and winding on earth's surface -- and I at first wondered' what is that glorious sliver of silver, twisting and turning so, going into and out of view, until I realized. It was another view you have to experience to understand how beautiful it is.

 

Thanks for the fine comment; I worked hard on this one;' it's more than a snapshot.

 

John (Crosley)

I understand that... I also do it... get there and just stand there... It's sorta of therapy for me as I have limited patience...Living in Wyoming helps due to the ease of access to these places. I can drive short distances, walk a bit, and just wait. B&W is my favorite although I've spent this year concentrating on color, HDR, and for the first time in 20 years learning Portraits. That (portraits and the lighting of them) has been both a challenge and rewarding.... Ken

I do get by such places from time to time and others as well.

 

And you've been shooting for 20 years, me for 4-1/2 in this latest bout, without any shooting since my mid-20s about 35 years ago.

 

Just an exception for a few shots every decade or so, just to see if I 'still had it'.

 

Best wishes to you.

 

The Medicine Bow is one of America's Most Beautiful Rivers and it stretches for miles and miles and miles and miles, though access is difficult if driving . . . though if you have waders, no problem I think but do it in pairs in case you step in a pool or sinkhole with your gear and have trouble, I think.

 

Safety first.

 

Getting trout and photos, especially in fall when the trout are really active, wow!

 

John (Crosley)

No... John you've got it....the gold cup by your name....I reaaaallllly want one. Best Regards and shoot some more landscapes its good therapy. Ken

If I were really to be anointed, I would have had that gold cup from my first post.

 

Look at it and you'll understand why.

 

My best ever.

 

An iconic photo.

 

Far better than the one that won Photo of the Week, but never posted for critique; I didn't know how to post for critique.

 

But it's been seen by over 100,000 viewers. I took it at a parade when I was 22, then saw Cartier-Bresson's works that year and essentially gave up photography and had many other careers since, only to return seriously to photography four years ago.

 

I didn't know enough Photoshop to do landscapes before -- it requires some knowledge of filtration and I don't even use filters, ever. But in Photoshop using channels you can just about duplicate the use of filters, so example 'A' is posted above.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Don't lust too much.

 

There's a lot of chance in that gold cup.

 

A lot of the very best photographers on Photo.net don't have one -- it means nothing except that it happened, not that one is 'best'.

 

Thanks for the kind words, however.

 

John (Crosley)

Seldom post Landscapes? John I take many of your photos as being urban landscapes. I'm not referring to the city scapes or outlines of the buildings, instead how you connect the cities images with the people. Just a different type of Landscape photographer I guess ;)

 

cg

In fact, I did mean 'scenic landscapes' as opposed to my many urban landscapes, now almost too many to count.

 

You have a good ear for a turn of the word or phrase, and also a good eye.

 

Thanks for giving my portfolio a new once-over, or is it a twice or thrice or more over?

 

I always am glad to see your name on a comment.

 

Best wishes to you, and thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

John,

I've once-overed your portfolio so many times I've lost count. I'm always glad to see what you have here :)

Attention to my great body of work here, which started as only 20+ photos, and now is approaching 1200, is the highest compliment you can pay me, and for that I am greatly appreciative.

 

When I post a scenic such as this, which decidedly is out-of-genre considering the main stream of my work, I sometimes hesitate, but not for long. It seems that whenever I see a good scene or come across a good capture, I prefer to share it, except for some bird photos, and also some nudes, which I do not share at all

 

They're almost all stored abroad -- not in the US at all, not because of any 'issues' but just because of oversight, which I'm trying to rectify. After all, one member stated (not so wisely I think) that semi-nudes were my strongest point, but I really think he has damned me with faint praise!!!! Or he just likes my choice of models for exposition, in part as one female told me in an e-mail. 'If we all had nipples like your nudes, we'd all want to show them off'. And that was from a total (female) stranger who was not a PN member and to my understanding, heterosexual.

 

Well, live and learn.

 

If I lived in Iowa, I'd be taking photos of beans, cows, pigs, farms and clouds, clouds, clouds.

 

Like the novelist who is trying to write about Elizabethan England, but who seeks advise from a publisher or experienced editor only to hear: 'Write what you know not what you have to become an expert in before you can put words to paper'

 

The same applies to photography. Photograph what you know and understand or would understand.

 

I think the conclusory judgment is I know pleasing composition and the timing that takes, plus the interplay of light added also to 'the moment' in certain circumstances, where 'the moment' adds something extra to a composition.

 

But, alas, no Cartier-Bresson, me.

 

But I have one thing over Cartier-Bresson.

 

I'm alive.

 

He ain't.

 

John (Crosley)

I have just now uploaded a lighter, better balanced workup of this photo, but so far it is not showing.

 

I'll come back in a day or so to see if it shows.

 

I've learned much about histograms, brightness and contrast since I posted this, plus the tools in Adobe Camera Raw now are better, so I improved it, I think.

 

I hope the improved version shows soon (and you think it's improved).

 

john

 

John (Crosley)