Hi!
My name is TJ for short and I’m new to NPN, so this is my first submission to this critique forum.
I took this picture of Lemmens Inlet, in Clayoquot Sound whilst on an evening kayak trip with my trusty four legged companion and excellent kayaker ‘Sawyer’ (you might meet him at the next weekly pet-dog competition …does such happen on NPN ;)? ).
Anyways, I didn’t get the background sharp (got to the rim of my gum boots tho) but personally love the bending tree on the right in conjunction with the rest of the shapes and forms.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photographers in my circle and the people I usually show my pictures to (e.g. my mom) were rather unexcited about this one.
… so what do you think?
Do you like this rather odd composition, with these weird, backlit things in the foreground??
Hi TJ and welcome aboard. This is a very cool image. The excellent repeated shapes of the trees combined with the reflection and somewhat ominous sky really work well. Great first post. I am looking forward to seeing more of your work and reading your thoughts on the images of others.
Yes, I do like the trees, etc. in the water and their reflections. Awesome backdrop both with the mountains and the clouds. Great first post. Keep 'em coming!
I am sensitive to graphical elements in an image. Yours has these strong lines of the two trunks in the foreground and of course the bent trees in the mid right. My inclination is to accentuate them but the large spaces on the bottom and left take away from that. There are also the two small islands in the mid-ground reflection that have lost impact due to the extra space in the image.
Try cropping out the extra space left and bottom. It will begin to create some closure between the left edge and the taller trunk, creating its own its own shape along the left edge. Cropping will also help the two islands become more important elements and group with the bent trunk mid-frame.
I have taken the liberty of including an example for you to see. Your image is 4x5 format, and I kept with that in the sample. If you don’t mind violating the format you could thin it out a bit more to delete the rock intruding from the left edge. Also consider thinning the right by cropping out the bright part of the trunk on the smaller bent tree, leaving the rest and its reflection (a 5x7 format).
Hey Harley! Thanks for the warm welcome and your feedback. So happy to have found this place to exchange with other photographers. Gonna be quite busy for the next 4 weeks before I hope I’m going to be able to dedicate most of upcoming winter to photography in the Oregon area …Thor’s well, I’m coming Cheers, TJ
Hey Guy! Thank you so much for your insights! Getting your feedback from such a ‘seasoned’ photographer really made my day. What you said absolutely makes sense and the latter 5x7 turned out to be my favorite crop.
The reason I went for the original crop was that I loved the polarized part in the foreground, where you can see through the water. I liked that in terms of ‘storytelling’ the image features a transition to ocean floor to mountains and sky, with everything in the middle. However, the simplification seems to work much better than my ‘around three corners’ story
Thanks again for going the extra mile! Went and checked out your smugmug portfolio and I think your landscape images are amongst the best I’ve seen.
All the best from Vancouver Island
Welcome to NPN TJ, this is an excellent first post, glad to have you here !!
You do have some nice soft light here, but for me what drives this image are the graphic shapes of the trees, and the implied diagonal moving from the left tree to the right tree. Whenever you can create strong relationships between graphic design elements like this, you usually have the makings of a good image.
I agree with @Guy_Manning about the bottom of the image diluting the impact of the graphic design elements of the trees. His suggested crop is a good example of how less is often more. For me the bottom of the original image is nowhere near as interesting as whats above it. When you have strong elements like these trees, do as much as you can to emphasize them, and simplify the rest of the image. While I like the overall direction taken with Guy’s suggested 5x7 rework, for my subjective taste I would prefer to see a bit more breathing room to the left of the tree. I would suggest something like this as another alternative crop.
Welcome to NPN, TJ. I love this “weird” photo! I especially love the gradation from seeing beneath the surface of the water in the LRC to the reflection of the clouds on the middle left. To me, the whole scene is the story, and I wouldn’t want to lose that really interesting foreground. The repetition of the curved, gnarly trees is a perfect counterpoint to the soft water. And the not-so-sharp background is fine, IMO - looks natural.
Because I love the foreground water, and think it is integral to the scene, I wouldn’t want to crop as much out as the other commenters have done. It feels like there is just a tad too much space on the left side of the frame, though - I thought that cropping to eliminate just those farthest left dark rocks would give it better balance. I tried 4x5, but think 8-1/2 x 11 (US letter size) works well - it give just a bit more verticality to the frame, empasizing those trees. Oh, and there was a bit of a sensor spot just above the left-most tree (nit-picky, I know ). Here’s my try at it.
Welcome to NPN, TJ. I love the shapes of these dead limbs and th islands behind them. They really set the mood together with the sky. I would not lighten the image much to reveal things because it contradicts the mood set by the main elements. I think Bonnie nailed the composition as there was too much space on the left. Overall I think this is a very creative vision and am glad you decided to share it.
Hello again and sorry for the late response.
Anyways, I feel so humbled over all the thought and time you’ve invested in my photo - thank you all so much!
Getting feedback in form of other photographers taste and expertise is truly refreshing compared to relying on IG likes, haha.
At the end this is a lot about personal preference and I really enjoyed following everybodies, different angle angle on the image.
While going though all your feedback I kept on re-checking with a postcard-size version of my photo on my screen. Looking at it like this I felt strongly about what Bonnie pointed out first: The compositional ‘problem’ is on the left while about 2/3rds of the right of the image have ‘some action’ going on from 'sea-to-sky …thanks Bonnie, …n I’ll add US letter-size to my portfolio from here!
Thanks as well again to all of you. This has been a great first experience and certainly feel like in a good place to advance my photography and meet like minded people.
All the best from Tofino
P.S. I just wish you wouldn’t have found that dust spot!
Cheers, TJ
). Here’s my try at it.
