Oh well, from what I remember from seeing it over the weekend:
It was well composed. I liked the way you brought the foreground (Granite Shoreline) across the lower portion of the frame to add some contrast and depth to the photo.
The bare foreground works against the busy treeline and its reflection. The morning sun (assumption) warms the view up and makes me want to be right there on the point with a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee.
Bout the only thing I'd change is the framing. The empty sky above is to far off in lightness from the rest of the picture. Framing to the treeline would brought the light and dark closer together, and you would still have the sky in the reflection. But that's just me. Great pic.
Thanks for sharing
Randy
I agree with you about too much empty sky at the top, but I remember thinking that it was too much granite if I lowered my camera when I took the picture...and I didn't like the composition as much if I stepped forward a couple of feet. I guess I'll go back in a couple of years when the trees are taller!
Here are a couple more shots from the same spot, just different angles. It sure was a beautiful morning. (If you'd been there with your oatmeal and coffee you'd have wanted to sit on a lifejacket or something - it was only about 22 degrees when I took these!)
sounds kind of like September 14, 2001 to me... how about you Pyker? Brings back some great memories, eh?
Beaglefur, I actually liked the last 2 pics (especially the 1st one) better than the one you posted for critique. As Pyker pointed out, the critique picture has too much blank sky. If it's a choice between cloudless, featureless sky or textured granite (probably with a couple of tufts of grass), go for the granite. It's a little more interesting.
I like the light exposure and subdued contrast in the critique shot (actually, in all the shots). Lends more of a dreamlike feel. You did a good job of keeping the horizon off the middle of the picture but still should have placed it a little higher.
I'm probably not going to the Boundary Waters/Quetico this year, because of a six week trip that I'm planning for British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska this summer. Maybe I can get up there for a long weekend...(sigh) Way too many things to do and far too little time...
Very nice photo. Some photographs convey "facts," others convey feeling. This photograph does both. Nicely done...
I had a lot of fun with this photograph since there are lots of alternative compositional possibilities besides the one you chose. For instance, using a square format, crop off most of the sky and put the small pine in the right foreground on the lower-right golden mean node (or at least as close as you can get it). Essentially this composition would use the right half of the photo, but with most of the sky gone.
Another alternative is to crop it even more severely using a standard proportion horizontal format by again putting the small tree on the lower-right golden mean node and cropping off the upper two thirds of the trees. Kinda hard to visualize, but in essence this composition uses the lower two thirds and the right two thirds of the picture.
This composition crops out all of the sky, but leaves the fog and the reflection and orients the observer towards the juxtaposition of the small tree and the upside down reflection of the larger trees. It also brings out the contrast between the rough texture of the rock and the smooth texture of the lake while simplifying even further the photo.
This latter composition is hard to describe; wish there was a good way to show you what I would do.
Again, it's a really nice photo. I'd not choose oatmeal though for breakfast; maybe a couple of pancakes with syrup, a cup of steaming coffee around which I'd keep my hands warm, while frying a freshly-caught walleye... (meals are important to me).
I'd crop even lower and eliminate the sky altogether. Or, just leave a tiny sliver. Where you cropped it now, leaves the larger trees (especially the large pine towards the right) looking rather ghastly -- like a bad pruning job. Cropping tighter emphasizes the reflection and the mist, even more.
Ahh, I can smell the coffee brewing and hear the bacon sizzling -- and, of course, the loons wailing.
I'd suggest cropping it even more, just like Larry mentioned. Essentially forget the trees almost completely...take 'em all off leaving just the fog...no sky at all even above the distant horizon on the right. In fact, cropping it just below that horizon is what I was suggesting. I'd also crop a bit more off the left side to "push" the little tree more to the left towards the golden mean.
Of course, this is pretty radical cropping, but I often take my photographs, even the really good ones, and search for pictures within the picture. It teaches a lot about composition and about simplifying the photo the next time one finds themselves in a similar situation. I think it's a bit like writing. It's best to do some writing and then come back to it a week later for another edit. I'm not sure what the waiting does. Maybe it puts oneself in a more objective position. The same is true with photos; rarely do I get a photo back that I find I can't improve on the "second" time around.
The point I'm trying to make, maybe not too well, is that often we don't see pictures within pictures when we are in the actual act of photographing the scene. Well, maybe the really great photographers do -- the Ansel Adams, Muench, etc., but those guys are, or were, pros. But sometimes seeing those pictures pictures within a picture are often the best ones. Teaches us to think more about composition alternatives when we're in the field and getting ready to push that shutter button the next time. (Heck, I even do that with National Geographic photos, but then I'm a bit retentive...)
I could make a copy and crop it for you to see and post it to this site, but I don't want to do that without your permission, especially since there isn't a copyright notice on it. But would be happy to do so with your permission.
Again, this is a really nice photo. Just a lot of ways of changing the composition and one way isn't necessarily better than another, just different.
Oh yeah, pancakes, syrup, hot coffee, a golden walleye fillet, and loon music...(forgot that last one; thanks for the reminder Larry...)
...as a matter of fact, I'll e-mail you the full size pic so you can crop it a lot and maintain good resolution.
Thanks a lot for all of the comments, you guys. I really am uneducated when it comes to photography - but I would like to learn at least enough so that I can hang a picture on the wall once in a while.
Yes, this is what I was suggesting for a square format crop. Most of us are probably not used to seeing a square format. Theater screens, televisions, etc. are all done in a rectangular format at some ratio and that is what we expect to see, so most of us never think about using a square format.
I think Gordon was suggesting more extreme than that even. His idea is to eliminate the far shoreline altogether -- just leaving the reflection. An interesting concept. Definitely simplifies the picture and makes the small pine on the near shore the main subject. Something I wouldn't have thought of but it works.
I also played with contrast and lightness a bit and used an unsharpen filter on the image to sharpen it a bit. (Still haven't figured out why they call it an Unsharpen filter.)
This is a really nice photograph and I think that so many of us came up with alternative suggestions points out that photography is really a very creative art form and a subjective one as well.
...I never would have thought of cropping it that way, but I really like it.
Thanks everyone so much for all of your ideas, comments, etc. This is a really cool board, and I'm learning a lot.
Looks like I'm going to have to have a chat with Mrs. Beaglefur sooner or later and pick up some better equipment. I took all of these pictures with a point and shoot, so filters and playing with exposures aren't much of an option at this point.
Cannon Rebel Would be my suggestion for a starter SLR. They're cheap and dependable. You can even find them used with a "decent" zoom lense for under $300. Have fun that's the most important thing.
Very simple, very elegant. I see no problems with leaving the sky where it's at. The only problem with the sky to me is that it doesn't match the reflexion in the water. This would be a perfect example of a good place to use a neutral density gradient filter. You could have balanced the color more. an NDG .3 would probably be enough, but a NDG .6 would have worked too. I can never understand why more photographers don't talk about these wonderful filters. I use them more than a polarizer. A NDG .9 will balance a light difference of 3 stops a .6 - 2 and a .3 - 1. Extremely valuable filters in my opinion. All in all I love this pic. May some good color management in photo shop is all it needs to be award winning. Keep up the good work.
The neutral density gradient filters are really handy and work really well in quite a few instances. In this particular photograph it could have brought out any details in the sky.
For those that may not be familiar with these filters, they have a neutral gray gradient that reduces contrast across the photo in some direction. For instance, since film has a limit as to how much contrast it can handle we often end up with photos that have a washed out sky, even though the rest of the photograph is properly exposed. That's because the camera/photographer usually meters for the trees, grass, etc. leaving the sky overexposed.
By placing the darkest part of the gradient on a neutral density gradient filter, over the sky, one reduces the difference in brightness between the sky and the trees/grass allowing for a better exposure of both. As a result, if there were any clouds/blue sky in this photo, it would have shown up better. Then, as Grego commented, there would be less reason to crop out the sky.
