jrileystewart

Thanks for the critique, Alf and Bela. I explored several compositions for this scene, including whether to exclude the structure at the right edge. I finally opted to include it because I think it supports the near-far relationship along the line created by the trees & path, ending at the small figure on the far left. The structure becomes a secondary center of interest, in my opinion, and helps the viewer "enter" the frame. Hope this helps explain why I left it in.

A cemetery in a public park area in Munich (1980), winter snow, a cold walk on a sunny morning.

Taken inside an historically preserved grist mill.

The small palmetto seemingly cradled by the Live Oak caught my eye, but it was the spanish moss leading my eye to the palmetto that really captivated me. This was taken on 4x5 large format B&W film, which let me capture the full range of light entering the scene.

Over the course of a year, I visited and photographed the interiors of several historic sites in Virginia, including George Washington's Grist Mill and Distillery. My goal wasn't to merely document these sites, but to artfully portray the craftsmanship and design of the architecture and equipment that modern industry has long since abandoned. This "portrait" is the family of tools used to produce whiskey in late 1700s in America. Natural lighting only. Search "Virginia Grist Project" to find the entire collection. Thanks for your critique.

I don't want to say too much about this. Appreciate any explorers out there who care to comment.

Appreciate your time to comment on this image, especially how it makes you feel. One word answer is great, if that's what you can muster. Thanks!

Jose, I really like this portrait of the puma..nice lighting, nice DOF, nice composition. He/She looks about to pounce, and certainly on high alert! It might have been stronger yet had you been able to capture his/her eyes looking at you, but I know how nature goes sometimes. As it is, you (the photographer) are merely an observer and not an active participant in the scene. Get those eyes looking at you, and you become an active participant (and so does the viewer of the image). Good luck!

Leonid, this is an awesome and interesting subject. Thanks for sharing. Compositionally, do you think you need everything in this image to tell the story? To me, everything in the background on the left of the frame (i.e., behind the main subject) doesn't contribute much. I want to see more of the interesting details of the "hand," but my eyes get distracted by the high contrast and content that appears in the background. You might try to crop it in various ways to really strengthen your story of the main subject, the "hand." I think you'll find one of those crops to do a better job. Very cool subject.

Thank you for your critique, David. I really appreciate it. I just checked the histogram to see why it might look like that, but the histo is full scale and continuous. The predominant tones are between III and IV, then a secondary dominance at IV - VIII. Full range covers 0-IX. I'm much more curious why it appears to be of shorter scale to you. I agree there are a lot of middle grays, and perhaps that results in it looking "flat" on a monitor....just don't know, but I tend to agree with your assessment. So, did a minor adjustment to the mid-tones (added contrast), and it looks much wetter now, and I like it better. Check it out here: http://jrileystewart.com/koken/albums/just-nature/content/perpetually-wet-1/ Thanks again!!

First said, I really like this image. It's technically perfect (imo), but I wonder if it evokes a feeling/emotion in you. What story does this image tell you? We see so many landscape/nature photographs that I wonder if we're no longer able to imagine the stories in them, or be enlightened by them. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts, positive or negative.