Reflection in Ponemah Bog’s pond. The little bit of fog left in the air makes the trees just pop. It’s a little soft because I had to handhold this (over my head looking up at the screen tilted down), but I really like the textures and the colors.
Specific Feedback Requested
Thoughts, impressions & ideas for improvement are welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Handheld as I said. The compositional choices were severely limited by the walkway and the high growth of plants right up against it.
Lr processed for the crop, color management and a lot of work finessing the white balance and contrast.
Really love the contrast of the red foliage on the ground with the green trees. And I think the softness gives it a painted look to it in my opinion. Looks like a beautiful place. Nice capture!
This is just great. Love the layers - very well done. I could see some attention to border cleanup on the lower side due to some barely creeping in heads of trees. The near treetops are among the brightest elements in the scene, so it’s catching some eye-time. Not sure if that’s by intent, but for me the magic is deeper in the scene and the overall pleasant spacing of layers so I’d consider burning and cloning down that brightness. I’d also be tempted to add just a bit of canvas at the top as the upper right corner of the tree just nearly touches the border of the frame making for another little eyetrap, but I’m probably pixel-peeping more than I should.
Hm…you hit one of my issues with the crop - where to do it? There is a lot going on down that way so it was always going to cut off something awkwardly. Let me see what I can do in Photoshop - an application I didn’t own at the time I shot this. Hold on!
Content aware fill to the rescue! Super job, Photoshop. I like the added breathing room and the reduction of business in the foreground. Thanks Jim!
Wonderful and unusual scene. I do feel the near trees could be toned down a bit and had to play. I did some desaturation on the FG and a bit of Glamour Glow on the BG, which felt a bit flat. Also picked the dandelions.
Oh my bog cotton - you made it disappear. I like it, but somehow miss it, too since it was all over. The background looks nice though. Hm. Food for thought. Thanks for helping breathe new life into an old image. I’ve been living with it so long that it feels permanent and it clearly isn’t!
This is a beautiful photo Kris! Love the contrast between the greens and browns, the bog cotton lets my eyes dart back and forth through the image. Well done!
Ponemah Bog is one of my favorite places to shoot, bogs and their unusual flora are just such interesting places to photograph. Kris, is this from November after the trees have lost their leaves? I’ve been here in mid October to shoot the tamaracks, but I love the late season color of the bog grasses here.
Here’s a vote for liking what @Diane_Miller did with her rework. IMO the de-saturation of the LLC helps focus on the red/green contrast in the center of the image. Having been here numerous times, I know the bog cotton are an integral part of the nature story at Ponemah. But I agree with Diane’s removal of them. There are not enough of the bog cotton here to effectively tell an overall story about a sense of place. And because they are bright elements along the edges, they do compete for attention withe red/green color contrast, which to me is the essence of this image. This pano composition works because it emphasizes the repeating layers of red and green. If you wanted to go for a more overall story, I do think a wider view with more tufts of bog cotton in the foreground would have worked well.
Yup. I see it. And you’re right. They’re bit players here and keep us from focusing on the rest of the story. Today is an editing afternoon so…I’ll repost in a bit. Thanks @Diane_Miller, too.
