I took this photo in August of 2021. Smoke from the wildfires out west was sending smoke over Upper Michigan and the result was a very heavily filtered sun. This was originally shot in landscape orientation but i cropped it to portrait to remove some of the quieter space on the right and left and emphasize the height of the trees.
Specific Feedback Requested
How does the crop look? This was taken with some of my first experimentation with a longer focal length. Before last year, i had not used a lens greater than a 70mm.
I love the composition. If I was to nitpick on anything it would be that the sun glade on the water is just slightly off center to the right, throwing the symmetry off just a bit.
Thank you Youssef. That bothers me a bit as well. Wonder if i could have rectified it by getting closer to my subject. I was very focused on trying to line the sun up just right between the trees.
Very nice!! Since the tree on the right slants a bit, it just wouldn’t have been possible to get both the sun and the reflection centered. Getting closer would increase the tree spacing and give more room for the reflection, so the lack of symmetry would be less obvious.
Hard to believe our fires out here sent that much smoke that far east!!
Thanks for the feedback Diane! I’ve been trying to come at my comps from a few different angles because I often get back home and look at photos and wish that I had done this or that differently. The smoke in 21 was really something. From late July through late august we had skies like this.
