davea1

It looks pretty good to me. Is the cloned section in the upper right-hand part of the sky? The composition, near-far is good--the sunset hued sky is a bonus which adds a bit of interest at the top of the scene.

This is an interesting shot. Was the "halo" obvious to the naked eye prior to taking the photo?

A humorous shot!

Nice soft tones-all the more remarkable for being partially backlit by the sunset.

A great composition with a contra-point of near-far. The sunset is a bonus that add a dynamic element to the photo.

This was a toss-off photo from a thead concerning the issue of medium distance view-point vs. close-up abstraction in response to the critique of the following photo:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2777686

 

Since I had already scanned it, and it "was" a nice abstract, I decided to post it in its own right. Thanks for your nice comments.

Thanks for your suggestion, but it would have required that I float in the air about 4000 feet vertically and about a mile to the left. As it was, a buddy was holding onto my belt while I was leaning over the cliff face. We do the best we can under the circumstances.

Great composition for a "grab" shot!

Composition is very well done! The bird seems to unify the various disparate elements. I think the blank and white and black border also help to create a mood of somberness. The bright sun provides a dramatic element that lightens the mood.

As was mentioned in my comments on Rock Formation No. 1, this type of rock formation presents a chaotic visual environment difficult to capture in a photograph. Upon first encountering it, I tried to find abstract patterns in close-ups as Salvatore suggests. To date I haven't been happy with the results. One has to follow the visual path one "can" see. This half-presentational, half-abstract style is as much as I can translate into an image at present. As bizarre as the images are, I also feel that by giving the viewer a bit of context such as foreground and sky I am giving the viewer a visual context or "frame of reference" inwhich to view the object. I'll post some closer, more abstract examples in the future to compare with these images.

Regarding Salvatore's comment about there being too much information in the photo... It is well taken. The landscape is much more complex than is pictured here. Every time I visit areas with this kind of rock, I really have to isolate the subject as much as possible. There is an overwhelming abundance of possible visual images, and the primary difficulty is to select the combination of features that result in a coherent presentation of a chaotic landscape. Take a look at some of the other photos in this series to get a feeling for the complex landscape and the challenge it presents to the photographer

This photo is from a series I've done on tafoni formations on the

California coast. I've only uploaded a few, and will post more later.

The formations, eroded by the waves and wind are very fragile, and

can change shape over one or two seasons. This photo was taken in the

late afternoon sun and had the advantage of "magic light" at that time

of day.