gminish

Thanks, Laurent!

Thank you for the encouraging feedback, Michael! Since my primary goal is to provide a sense of presence in my landscape photos that make you feel as if you were there, it is always good to hear that an image was successful.

This beachscape definitely has a strong leading line!  Perfect exposure and excellent composition, Jorge! Very nice!

A perfect exposure, excellent colors, nice foreground detail and a good composition.  A very pleasing sunset beachscape, Marco!

Nice Alaskan sunrise, Dave!  An excellent exposure and good composition.  The reflected orange light helps liven up the otherwise dull Alaskan beach.  It's always a challenge to get exciting foregrounds for a near/far composition like this in Alaska, especially in or near the mud flats. 

Love the soft, sexy curves and shadows in this scene, Kersti!  Excellent choice of composition and a very good job with the exposure.  The blue tones also contrast nicely with the yellow/orange sky which adds a little bit of shock value.  Good eye to see the opportunity and a nice shot!

You're right, Mark.  The larger image has much more 'presence'.  The clouds, both above and distant are a big part of what makes this photo interesting and your exposure is perfect, showing nice detail in the clouds and background mountains without losing the highlights.  The compostion is good with the stream entering at the left corner and angling into the scene and the placement of the woman is classical 'thirds'.  All in all, a very pleasing scene with a peaceful, refreshing mood. Nicely shot!

As for the vest, I don't really care that you changed the color.  The most important thing is that you told us you did. 

A cold January day (-20°F), looking up the Tsaina River toward

Worthington Glacier. This location is on the Richardson Highway about

35 miles inland from Valdez, Alaska.

 

3 vertical frames stitched.

It was early morning as the sun rose and thick fog covered the entire

bay a couple hundred feet deep. I went up the Mountain above the

Terminal to get above the fog and took a series of photos. As I was

shooting, the fog started lifting and exposed this tanker at the berth. It

must have been quite a view from their location also.

Valdez tide flats, looking West as the sun set behind the distant mountains.  A short rain/snow storm was just breaking up and contributed to the dynamic scene.  You can see from the rain drops in the water in the foreground that it was still raining on me while I shot this.

The dynamic range was pretty severe and would have resulted in a blown out sunset or near black mountains and foreground so I set up the tripod and and shot two frames for the panorama and 4 exposures per frame.  I used "Oloneo Photo Engine" beta to blend the exposures and then stitched the two resulting frames with "Autopano Pro".

A very nice, expansive landscape, Alberto!  The exposure is perfect and the composition is nicely balances.  Very well shot. 

A very nice, crisp cityscape, Marco!  Good job on controlling the exposure.  The sunlit clouds are captured perfectly. 

Seining for pink salmon in Valdez, Alaska. The deck hand and the skiff

man are plunging (with big cups on the end of long poles) to scare the

salmon and keep them from swimming around the boats to escape the

net. The plungers make very loud popping sounds when slammed into

the water.

The sunset is gorgeous but I think you made a mistake in lightening up the foreground so much.  It's not particularly pretty and distracts from the beautiful sky.  Very good gob with the exposure on this shot.  The colors are very natural and the highlights aren't blown out.  Very nice overall, but the foreground hurts it.

I like this one even better than the other one, Paolo!  The alpenglow on the rocks really add to the scene.  I also like the rocks in the foreground (a very pleasing composition).  Your sharpening is not working too well and really hurts your presentation.  I'm not sure what's going wrong but it looks like the radius is too large and the effect is too strong.  It makes the small details look a little muddled and leaves halos on the strong edges. That, of course, has nothing to do with the quality of the photo, just the presentation.  I would love to see a very large version or a print of this.

A very nice reflection landscape, Paolo!  The sky is fantastic and the composition is very well done.  Compression and sharpening has hurt the presentation but I'm sure a print would be beautiful.

I am a big panorama fan and I really like the symmetry in this one.  The exposure is excellent, with good control of the highlights and lots of detail.  I only wish I could see a really large version.  While the standard photography rules say that you should never center the horizon, I tend to disagree when it comes to reflection shots such as this.  A centered horizon would strongly emphasize the symmetry and make the overall impact even stronger.  Cropping the bottom would also eliminate the distraction of the few bits of swamp grass in the lower right corner.  An impressive reflection and very well photographed, Randall!

I like the mood of this late light scene and the composition is strong.  The long exposure provided good details in the foreground and a nice misty appearance to the water movement but it makes the cloud formations look out of focus.  I actually like the viginetting but it's a little heavy in the upper right corner.  Overall, a very pleasing scene and a nice photo.

A cold February day at the Valdez, Alaska small boat harbor. Late

light, blowing snow mixed with clouds and a thin film of ice on the water.

Bright morning light after a snow/rain storm. I love the transition periods

when the clouds and fog are breaking up and the light breaks through to

play on the mountains. Please click on the image to view the large

size. It has much more presence and detail.

The Tsaina River gorge near Valdez, Alaska. The Fall colors, fresh

snow and clouds were lit up by the low, late sun but half the canyon

was in deep shade. The unique blue color of the water is caused by the

super fine glacial silt suspended in the water. Earlier in the year, at full

flow the river is gray and muddy. A little later than this photo, when the

river is only a stream the water is crystal clear.

 

I used multiple exposure blends in order to deal with the dynamic range

of the scene. This is 2 vertical frames stitched in Autopano Pro. Each

vertical frame is 6 exposures blended in Paintshop Pro. Total of 12

photos involved in creating this image.

A very nice scene with excellent lighting! It looks like it was an aerial photo. That can be tough to shoot, especially if the plane has double plastic windows. The only downside is that it's a bit flat looking. Some contrast to bring out the light and the details plus some sharpening would make a difference. I hope you don't mind but I did a quick and dirty adjustment to your image and included it with this critique.

Nice light and excellent composition. The person under the tree helps the mood in this scene. It painting feel to it. The only thing I'm not so sure of is what appears to be smoke from a campfire? It would be OK if you could see the fire but it distracts from the scene somewhat as photographed.

I really like these kind of foggy, wet scenes, possibly because I see them a lot. The little splash of fall orange is a nice bonus. Glad to see you're making the best of the lousy weather. I sure hope you make another try at my part of Alaska!

 

Can't wait to see more from your trip!

 

Take care,

Gary

Another beautiful scene that is similar to much of the Denali Park drive. Great job on the exposure and the colors. Everything looks perfectly real and natural.