jeff_zylland

This reminds me of a Rembrandt portrait. I wonder if people back then complained that his pictures were too dark, too. He did have a magical way of adding just enough highlights to make the portrait come alive from the dark backgrounds. I'd encourage you to keep working at this style, as it shows great potential.

Good suggestion--I see what you mean about the stuff poking in on the left and I may crop it in the future.

Yes, there is a problem with the mountain exposure. This is just in the scan--I think the slide has too large of a dynamic range for the scanner and much more detail is visible in the original. I have a lot to learn about my scanner (Minolta Dimage scan elite II).

 

Although the blurring is unavoidable with a moving earth, I did have it in mind when taking this shot--I had hoped it would add some movement into the shot.

 

I appreciate the critical views. Good astrophotography has some huge competition. I have also learned that the "goodness" is 90% equipment. But the other part is creativity and simply long hours. I have hundreds of failed astrophotos, many of which took hours worth of set up work. But compared to many astrophotography enthusiasts, I was one of the less dedicated. These people not only get the best equipment, but they are out every clear night possible until dawn, pouring their hearts and souls into their work. Sometimes, I get overly enthusiastic comments on any astrophoto. I try to explain that if they had the same equipment, they probably could have taken the same or even better shot.

 

I do often wonder if I had had better film that night and more time that I might have had a great comet shot instead of just a good one. But what's the use of wondering what ifs?

Thanks again for the helpful comments. The blurry trees, as in the comet photo, are due to the tracking of the stars (both about 5 minute exposures). There is always a choice between getting star trails, getting "earth blurs" or having a shorter exposure on grainier film. The other aurora shots in my portfolio on 800 film and 20sec exposures demonstrate this. I agree that the blur is not as pleasing in this photo and perhaps more interesting in the comet shot. My biggest gripe about this shot is that the last star in the Dipper's handle is behind the tree. But this is where my telescope was set up.

thanks again

Thank you for the comments. Here is the same picture I took with flash and diffuser (homemade and not very effective diffuser, but necessary for my wide-angle lens). I had mixed feelings about posting this instead. It seemed too busy or distracting to me, but I'd love to hear your opinion on the comparison, or if there would be some way of improving the flash shot. Maybe a softer light (portable soft box?) would be nice, and the lower right is still a bit too dark?

Nice candid moment and a good idea. I find the blurry railing and tree somewhat distracting, though--the photo could use such element on the left side as you have done, but it just doesn't quite fit here IMO.

Nice sunset picture--especially with the the silhouettes in the forground. Although the clouds are very beautiful, and I wish I were there, this sunset lacks some vibrancy IMO--in terms of contrast/color and the large grey area in the upper left. There is, of course, intense competition in the sunset department and much of it is right place, right time. You almost hit it here.

This is a great situation, setting, and colors for a photo. It's also a tough place to make a good composition IMO. It seems too busy to me--like it lacks a good point of interest. Perhaps this could be fixed by either a smaller DOF or closer in with a wider angle? I'm not saying I'd be able to do any better, though!

Very nice nighttime shot. The colors are almost whimsical.

I enjoy your work with reflections and I would continue to work on this composition as others have suggested. Can you avoid those two lights in the lower left, as well? The colors in the reflection are beautiful, but the sky in the back is washed out. The whole photo might be just a touch too overexposed--either your doing or the developer's. I am fairly new at photography myself and one of the biggest jumps that I made in learning about and improving my photos was moving to slide film. You often get better color saturation, they are actually cheaper (more expensive film, cheaper developing) and easier to manage (I have piles of negatives to sort through and try to match with prints, but my slides are like little pictures on their own) in the long run, and they look spectacular to show people, though it takes more work. But most important, you cut past the B.S. of trying to get the right look from the developers (they often have bad taste or bad computers to judge exposure). With slide, you get exactly what you photographed and you learn how to improve exposure, etc. It's just more intuitive. I finally got a slide scanner (a bit of an investment for a good one) and now I can get digital prints from my best slides even better than I'd get from print film! There's some really fun film out there that can be part of your transitioning from snapshots to works of art.

It might be nice for a computer advertisement, but it's not really for me otherwise. I'd prefer it with less blank space on the left and less obstruction of the black thing over the illuminated disks..

weird, but kinda cool. It makes me think of a kid in a cocoon about to emerge as a butterfly. At this resolution, it looks like the kid was pasted into this photo--maybe it's the lighting? I guess I expect to see some shadow. Neat idea!

I have been to this mountain and was awed by its beauty. I was also frusterated that I could not imagine a good way of photographing it. But you have definately done it in a way that it does not look like one of the thousands of generic postcards. I wouldn't crop the bottom--the trees would appear cut off--it makes an original and nice, no--excellent contrast as it stands.

Your portfolio is so beautiful that it almost hurts to look at.

This is beautiful--I mean I can really feel myself there! Beautiful composition. I personally like the "overly" polarized sky, as that is how my mind sees a dark blue sky. The snow in the lower left almost looks like there's a light on it--I'd prefer the lighting there just a little more even--is this from the ND grad filter? This is a wall hanger, though.

Hey--I have almost the same picture! It's near that one waterfall in Jasper. I don't have it scanned yet, though. Nice job!

 

mmmm, Aren't you gonna share?

I think this is a neat idea. Not only are the lighting and colors pleasingly soft, but I think the reflection of people behind the memorial has a symbolic presence. I like the other photo with less people, too, but this is more lively. My only problem is that the crack goes right through the middle, the road, and the people. The positioning of the cracks on the other photo is less distracting IMO.

Thanks for the insight. I did post a slightly different crop in my portfolio for comparison's sake. I wish I could keep going back to photograph it again--or just to sit and enjoy beauty of that scene.

Thanks for being observant. It was August of 2001, and I just corrected the info field.

As I recall, I relied on the sun being in the right position so that I could use the polarizer to cut the glare (which usually washes out colors otherwise visible to our eyes) and darken the sky. I then purposefully underexposed by a half stop or so to get extra color saturation.

the colors are nice in an unusual way--almost unnaturally fluorescent like tetras in an aquarium. The green thing in the upper left seems just a tad out of place, but the format is very fitting for your text placement.

Cool photo. I remember going there once as a kid. I'm honestly a little confused about what looks like black sky, though.

I think this is a very intriguing photo. I love the colors and I'm OK with the square format, though I'd be open to another also. I guess the lighting seems just a touch uneven, though I'm not sure how you'd correct that without being in a studio. Good job!

I like this photo, but I can't explain why. I think this is one of

those photos where I have such a personal attachment to the scene,

that I cannot see beyond my memory of it. How could I convey this

feeling better to others? I could imagine better ways of cropping it

(trim some of the bottom off?), but maybe it's just too dull in

general? Or does it appeal to some? It only looks nice to me when

viewed large.