Raquette Lake in early morning light

[DanK]

I have not posted many landscapes in a long time, but I thought I would post this one for C&C. I took it as the last of the morning mist was lifting off this lake, which is in the middle of the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. I'm not certain what I think of it and would be interested in C&C.

Thanks for looking

[Brownbear]

I think it is a very beautiful image...

[Donald]

I think it is a very beautiful image...

So do I.

A good lesson in composition. For me, this is about someone (in this case, Dan) having the skill to look at the scene and 'see' the picture. That vision thing!

Imagine if the shoreline at the right hand side had been down in the bottom half of the frame. What sort of picture would that have made? Whereas here, the reflection in the water is the start of the show. But, yet, we can still see the lake going off into the distance and around behind those foreground trees and are provided with a depth in the picture and sense of scale.

Gorgeous.

[jcuknz]

The twig centre bottom bugs me though I think it is much better as is than the higher crop [ as Donald said .. an interesting point] Or it it a trunk out of shot?

[DanK]

Many thanks. I do mostly macro, and my forays into landscapes are not always very successful.

Re the twig: it's actually part of a reflection of a large birch, either a paper birch or a silver birch. It was the most difficult part of the image for me. If more is included, it is a striking reflection, but including more would have thrown the composition out of balance. Ditto, lopping it off entirely. So I compromised.

[John 2]

To my eye Dan, you could just crop it just above the reflection of the birch without damaging the balance of the comp. I know it brings things more to the centre line but your leads are strong enough to overcome that. It's a really nice image but that reflection just pulls the eye a bit.

[Karm Redland]

Dan, nice image. I have mixed feelings about things like your twig. I definitely see the point of those who want you to remove it.

karm

[Trailyes]

I have not posted many landscapes in a long time, but I thought I would post this one for C&C. I took it as the last of the morning mist was lifting off this lake, which is in the middle of the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. I'm not certain what I think of it and would be interested in C&C.

Thanks for looking

[Trailyes]

Composition is one of the most difficult areas in photography, both in capturing the image and critiquing it. Having the horizon line above the centerline is great placement, and much of the depth would be lost by shifting it down. Shapes in the final image play a major role in guiding the viewer through the photograph. Here there are distinctive shapes pointing to the left, with only negative space at their apex. Expanding this space to enhance the illusion of depth or contracting it to establish boundaries may be appropriate. Often this is dependent on what lies to the left of the image space.