The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.
Self Critique
Other concepts on how water flow might be enhanced.
Creative direction
I have atempted to capture the diagonal flow of the instant waterfall along the steep rock surface with its extrondinary texture and color, brought out by the rain.
Specific Feedback
Interested in comments on composition, color and tone.
Technical Details
Nikon Z7 24-70 f/4 1/6 sec f/7.1 @ 33mm processed in PS, cropped with foreground clean up.
Description
The only day I have visited Zion NP, it poured. While traveling on the park road with a group of photographers, we noted that many dry streams suddenly experienced a rush of water. We stopped at several locations to photograph the rush of water and I caught a glipse of this waterfall, then desended dow a bank to capture this image of the waterfall at its peak. Literally 5 minutes later the waterfall dropped to a trickle.
Gary, what an experience. I had a similar one in Zion several years ago. A fantastic time. This is a really strong image from a purely graphical perspective. The waterfall divides the scene nicely and the small trees/shrubs in the foreground had a terrific element of realism.
Thanks for including the raw version so that we can tell how much work you went to for the waterfall itself. Nicely done as it shows the texture wonderfully.
I love the lines throughout this image. The bright, flowing, sensuous waterfall juxtaposed against the dark, hard, immovable rock is great. The textures are very appealing. The exposure on the water is great in that it causes it to look like threads. I like the little tree in the foreground.
What a treat for you to have witnessed. The resulting photo shows very well how the shapes, contours and textures of the rock are created. The ribbony stretch and bend, and presentation of the water is perfect in the diagonal placement. I do wish for more room on the left. The cut off is very abrupt and feels accidental. Not sure if Content Aware Fill and Add Canvas could help there, but it would be worth exploring IMO. The crop works well to harmonize the image and help distribute the visual weight. You could probably push the colors more if you wanted. And if you really wanted to manipulate this more, you could clone out the small plant on the far left, leaving just the taller one as a fulcrum of sorts for the cascade. It also offers a bit of emotional impact in the sense that it needs that rush of life in order to survive. I think of birds feeding their young when I see this. What a terrific image.
Your creative direction worked well, because what immediately jumps out is the crossing diagonals of the water with those rock lines (they are amazing). The colors look as I’d expect given the damp conditions.
As to composition, the image feels a tad crowded on the left, but looking at the raw it looks like you took the best option available.
A square crop of the top is fun in an abstract sort of way. (Not better, just interesting.)
Gary, what a neat capture of such an ephemeral event in this desert environment! It’s cool how this illustrates the force of water and how its role in shaping the landscape there over millennia. I like how the strands of flow mimic the narrow layers of rock that its cutting across. I also like your crop and the color and contrast. Very well done!
I think what you have presented is an excellent example of taking a raw photo, pun not intended, and turned it into a work of art.
Clearly the water is “center piece” and both the strong diagonal and the subtle sinuous curve imparts an incredible elegance to the photo. Further, that coupled with the silky ribbons in the water juxtaposed against the hard stratified rock accentuates the already delicate impression of the water.
The color saturation and contrast are perfect in my opinion, I would not change that.
My only critique is about the cloning of the foreground. It did not occur to me that you had done that until seeing the out of the camera image. So for that I think you did a great job. But after looking closely you can see the repeating elements and it’s a clear give away that it was cloned.
That being said, I am not sure how you could do any better compositionally. I would not want to crop any more off the bottom as that little green tree is carrying the lion’s share of providing not only a visual anchor, but also a color counterpart to the red tones in the rock, as well as the completion of the story arc, as without that ephemeral water that tree would not even be there.
Perhaps trying to randomize the cloning in some way to eliminate the repeating pattern might be the only path to correcting it.
In either case, you have a great photo. Congratulations.
