'Road Colors After Rain'

This is an isolated road, somewhere in Western Oregon, not far from a

major highway, but completely isolated, and surrounded mostly by

hardwoods instead of typical Oregon evergreens. Photoshopping

(image editing) of this photo is 'absolute minimum'. Also, it's from

a 'raw' (NEF) capture. 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

composition is perfect although less of the road could be captured. the split complementary color scheme here is beautiful.

This is a rarely posted 'Crosley Landscape'. I post one every once in a while, just to show viewers I'm not one dimensional in my shooting or aesthetic.

 

I think your analysis is quite sound -- I hadn't thought in terms of 'split complementary colors' but that indeed is so. I've always liked blue and gold or yellow and gold (and so do the countries of Argentina and Ukraine, both of which have adopted those colors for their national colors -- just have a look at their flags.)

 

I also am a fan of the meandering 'S' curve of the curve that meanders into the horizon, whether it's an 'S' curve, a 'C' curve, or some combination or variation.

 

It draws the viewers' eyes into the composition, and holds the viewers' attention, which is what a photo is supposed to do. That is harder with a simple (and this really is quite simple in composition) sort of landscape, not filled with the intricacies, say, of an Olympic Peninsula, Washington, Rain Forest, for instance, with trees dripping with moss, and undergrowth everywhere and thus rich in detail.

 

This photo really is simplicity itself, yet somehow it has a certain appeal, to me at least. I've been staring at it for some time, to decide whether to post it, and have made the decision to do so - and happily so.

 

It was a good decision. This is not a 'perfect' photo. I'd have taken it a little differently -- with a slightly wider lens if I had one available, but I didn't have one available at that particular moment or just couldn't find one that particular cold morning inside my messy car.

 

Best to you Arash, and thanks for the helpful analysis.

 

John (Crosley)

Beautiful scene with great ights in trees and road.I like colors too , it looks too peaceful.

 

Best Wishes

Is that is was cold -- very cold.

 

In Oregon it often is very moist in the air with wintertime humidity often at 100% (or more, which leads to rain, frequent rain).

 

Here it has just rained, and it was just above freezing and it was cold, -- biting cold -- not like the drier cold of continental areas where air is often quite dry and therefore doesn't transfer the cold readily.

 

In humid Oregon the coldness transfers quite rapidly, even if it is not ice and snow.

 

But beauty overcame all despite my numb fingers, and thank you for the compliment. I don't post many scenics or landscapes -- and few cliches, I hope. I tend to avoid 'over saturated sunsets' and other cliches. I hope this one also falls outside the cliche trap.

 

Best to you, and thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

Well done -- the road draws my eye right through the image.... I also like the contrast of the dark wood and fall color.....It appears as if the road and foliage goes out of focus at the end of the image...I like that even if it was not intentional....I think you did this beautiful place justice........Ken

Frankly Ken, it was not very beautiful at all.

 

I just recognized that by lowering the aperture from the metered aperture it would fully saturate the colors and bring out the early morning blue, adding a sort of 'color' one's eye would 'compensate for', and one never would truly 'see' -- although it was there.

 

In a way, I presented a reality one could never truly 'see' because the eye 'filters' this view out.

 

I studied the composition, and that is why I took this photo. I just stopped my car in the middle of this road, got out and stood in front, framed, took a shot, then applied easy exposure adjustment to lower the exposure from matrix metering recommendation and voila: A view one would never 'see' though it is a 'true' view -- one's eye makes 'adjustments' that prevents one from 'seeing' such a view.

 

And it was the composition, of course, that drew me in and caused me to make this play in colors and eyes . . . . . a sort of fun thing to do and a sort of stick in the eye of those who purposefully over saturate using Photoshop's 'saturation' slider.

 

Which I almost never use at all.

 

Thanks Ken for the endorsement for this photo. I like it very much - it's pretty much out of genre for me, but not out of character - as 'composition' is part of why I shoot, and this certainly has 'composition'.

 

Best to you, and thanks for sharing your views.

 

John (Crosley)

I like your composition and I like the saturated colours. This image truly conveys a feeling of time and place.

Thank you Jim, for letting me know your impressions. I appreciate that.

 

John (Crosley)

Isnt it interesting that such a mundane scene can be so attractive ? I say, CAN. Because all ingredients are there: (strong) colors and color contrast, depth, nice lead-in towards an off-center vanishing point, and lots of textures to discover. Maybe I would desaturate the olive-brown hues LR, but that is a very minor issue :-)

 

Cheers

 

Carsten

You say what the photo 'can' be, but the real question 'is' it or does it reach that level, not 'can' it because of these elements. Did it actually achieve what you say it 'can' or by 'can' do you actually mean it 'did' reach those levels?

 

I'm a great one to read all words carefully, and to pay great attention to words from a master of beauty in landscape such as yourself.

 

As you probably are aware, I have posted only a half dozen or so landscapes in my PN career; this is the latest, and a critique from you is highly valued, since you are one of PN's masters in this genre.

 

However, I also note you are also a man who shoots a variety of images, not just landscapes, which also has my respect -- I prize versatility. I think 'artistic vision' is something that one can adapt to various genres and sub genres within photography, and I think you have done that successfully. Many do not try.

 

But your emphasis on the word 'can' has me intrigued. Does it mean that the ingredients 'could have' attained a certain level but did not, or does it mean that those ingredients did achieve that level? I'm curious, but I won't supplant my own views with yours.

 

I know how to improve this photo a little bit, but I just didn't have the proper lens (and wasn't about to stand on the hood of my car which is what it would have required (or the roof). (I didn't have a step ladder, which I would have preferred -- or a friend with a step van or SUV with roof rack strong enough to hold me.) I recall that Ansel Adams had a special roof rack mounted on his vehicle when he was shootiing in Yosemite in the 1940s during World War II.

 

Oh, and that slimy color, lower right, is something I won't desaturate. This is an Oregon photo and typical of Oregon, that is moss growing on the road. (no rolling stones around, I suppose, and cars don't pass often enough).

 

I choose to do as little Photoshopping as possible; I sort of guess you might have thought the color was some sort of Photoshop artifact possibly from saturation or some such, but it is just a true representation of the scene -- moss growing on an otherwise blue Oregon road (blue only in the eyes of the camera -- your eye filters out the blue - possibly because it's so reflective and bright - you wouldn't see this as blue, though it truly is.)

 

Thanks for stopping by and critiquing, Carsten.

 

With respect.

 

John (Crosley)

John, to interline in english language is not my strength, being German... This IS very well done, I mean. Could have been boring, with less compository skills, you did a VERY good job here. If your intention is partially documentary, leth the moss-green there. It was there. As I said, a very minor issue for me, and kind of matter of personal preference.

 

Cheers

 

Carsten

I was not fishing for compliments. I truly did not know if you were dreaming that this 'could' have been good because of the elements or if I had achieved the 'goodness' you seemed to speak of.

 

Thanks for the very high compliment. I am very highly flattered, especially coming from you. And, this is a digital photograph where saturation is NOT boosted, at least traditionally, instead by intentional slight underexposure -- an old trick I have used in landscapes to suppress brightness and highlights which may appear as 'blowouts' or otherwise be disturbing.

 

I am greatly flattered (Oh, I said that, didn't I ?) - but I consider the source, and I don't post in this genre (color landscapes), but once in a blue moon (or less often).

 

John (Crosley)