On our recent trip to the east side of the Sierra, we visited the Buttermilks, outside of Bishop, which are a series of low granite hills and outcrops. It was getting close to evening, so the sun was low, but this outcrop was mostly facing the sun. I liked the sharp shadows and angles of the fractures with the little bush as an accent point.
Specific Feedback Requested
Does the balance look ok? The triangular area in the LLC almost feels to large in the frame, but I can’t decide.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
a73r, 77mm, 1/100s, f/16, ISO 400.
Hi Bonnie. I love the textures, shadows, and the repeating geometry of the lines in the rock. The little bush makes the image for me and gives the image a subject. I think you placed it well to balance the LLC triangular shape. Lovely image!
Great use of the shadows to create some interesting shapes, there are triangles and diagonal lines all over this scene. And the little bush is really important, it anchors the scene. This image might also translate well to B&W, given it’s strong graphic shapes and high contrast look.
Not to me. It balances with the section above the plant. This is what to do in hard light - graphic representations of nature using those shadows to put into relief texture and shapes that would be invisible without them. Jon mentions geometry and that’s a good description of the overall effect.
It’s interesting in that I took a very similar composition last year at the Alabama Hills. I like this fine but the harsh light is affecting the colors. Of course, you do get the nice shadow this way. But I think softer light would be helpful.
Igor, I agree with you that softer light would have been more desirable. One of the problems with this one is that the harsh light was falling +/- directly on the face, so it didn’t pick out the textures so well. While I do like the geometry of it, the harsh light is a bit much.
