Dizzying View of Hoover Dam

[Karm Redland]

All comments welcomed.



Karm

[MilT0s]

Dizzy indeed. Nice eye!

I'd darken the bottom left a bit if I were you.

[grounded]

Sorry Kar It doesn't do a thing for me.

[glenng]

Hi Kar nice photo but Sorry It doesn't do anything for me and I don’t like hights.

[Donald]

For me it's a bit too busy and I'm not sure where my eyes are meant to alight. I feel there's no main subject that grounds it.

There is an interesting abstract shape created by the two strong lines bottom left and top left contrasted with the sweep of the wall and pathway at the bottom right. But that central area of the view downwards doesn't really have anything in it to support those shapes.

It feels as if it's one of those situation that to be there is breathtaking, but to translate it into an image is pretty difficult.

[Geoff F]

Looking downwards can produce disappointing results unless there are converging lines or suitable reference points.

I have stood on a cliff edge looking down at foaming surf, with my knees knocking, but the result was very flat with no appearance of depth.

I wonder if cropping slightly differently might help. That is a nice piece of stonework on the wall, but it doesn't add any impact to the overall scene when it appears more important than the drop.

Maybe try cropping the bottom edge to the base of the wall and a similar amount from the right side?

[21Limited]

It's odd but it's cool. The distracting thing for me is the blasted highlights, bottom left... if I can keep my eye away from that, I like the picture.

[FrankMi]

Hi Karm I think that one of the issues that is interfering with getting a real sense of height is that there aren't enough recognizable elements to piece it all together. I have had the same problem at the Hoover Dam. The most common images are, well, common. And the unusual scenes, like this one, don't clearly tell the story.

Have you got any other images of the Dam that might help clarify what we are seeing?

[Karm Redland]

Frank, you perfectly explain the problem of taking a picture of an icon like the Hoover Dam. I was looking for a different view of the Dam. Once I was finished with my viewing orgasm of the dam itself I began looking around for something to take a picture of that was not obvious postcard schlock -- even though probably my best pictures fall into this category. When I came across this scene I liked it immediately. I understand most of the criticisms directed at it -- many of which I realized when taking the picture. However, I still liked the picture even though things like its lines go no where in particular. I agree with your "height" comment. I might try to distort the picture a bit to give it a little bit more depth. One final point, in this picture I am really not trying to tell you something about the dam. I am trying to show you something that I saw that I thought was cool to look at. I could not think of a title for this picture so I named it what I felt when looking at this scene: a dizzying view ...

Karm

[Karm Redland]

Norman, according to Lightroom 3.6 (?) highlights are not "blasted." Nevertheless, I understand your comment. I tried darkening bottom left and it immediately wanted to turn grey which while not distracting bothered me. I will try to reduce its luminosity and see if it helps.

Karm

[Karm Redland]

Donald, your line "It feels as if it's ..." is right on the mark. I think where I failed in this picture is not giving the viewer its proper sense of depth -- this was at least 50% of the experience of looking through the scene's complex frame.

Your other criticisms I accept but for this picture I think are of secondary importance if I had captured the scene correctly.

Karm